Advocacy, Artistic Freedom, News
FERA and ICFR stands with South-Korean filmmaker and journalist Jung Yoon-suk
29 December 2025
FERA, the Federation of European Screen Directors, is a strategic partner of the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR). Founded by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and the European Film Academy, ICFR is dedicated to advocating for filmmakers facing severe threats or persecution due to their work.
ICFR’s mission is to defend the rights and safety of filmmakers — including directors, producers, and actors — who are at immediate risk. They provide support through advocacy, emergency funding, connecting filmmakers with support networks, and monitoring ongoing threats. In cases like that of South-Korean filmmaker and journalist Jung Yoon-suk, ICFR works with partner organizations to campaign for his release and protect his rights.
FERA stands in solidarity with ICFR in defending creative freedom and promoting the safety of filmmakers worldwide.
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29 December 2025 – Update
In the last days of 2025, the ICFR calls upon the global film community to take a stand and sign the petition in support of our Korean colleague Jung Yoon-suk. As reported in our original campaign, Jung Yoon-suk sought to document the civil riots outside Seoul’s Western District Court last January, as is his custom as a documentary filmmaker – but in the eyes of the Korean court, this has been deemed “aggravated trespassing”. Jung Yoon-suk and his legal team are appealing the original verdict and the one-year prison sentence now requested by prosecutors; the new judgment will be delivered on December 24.
On December 25, Jung Yoon-suk’s legal team has informed the ICFR that the appellate court has unfortunately rejected their appeal plea. Jung Yoon-suk’s actions are still being deemed a criminal offense, and a hefty monetary fine is hanging over his head now. Jung Yoon-suk and his legal team are now taking this case to Korea’s Supreme Court, and the ICFR continues to support their mission for justice for Jung Yoon-suk, whose sentencing would create a dangerous precedent for filmmakers and artists in Korea and elsewhere.
If you can, please sign and spread the petition and support Jung Yoon-suk!
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31 July 2025
The ICFR stands in full support of the South-Korean filmmaker and journalist Jung Yoon-suk, sentenced to 1 year in prison for trying to document his country’s political upheaval
The ICFR asks the global film community to speak out in support of South-Korean filmmaker Jung Yoon-suk, and calls upon the authorities of South Korea to immediately and unconditionally drop all the charges leveled against him. As a result of his attempt to document the political riots in the country in January of this year, Jung Yoon-suk will be sentenced to a one-year imprisonment in court on Friday August 1, without the option to convert the sentence to a fine.
Jung Yoon-suk is a documentary filmmaker who has spent the past two decades documenting his country’s political turmoil and public grief. His films have revolved around such real-life topics as the the 2014 Sewol Ferry disaster and the deadly crowd crush in Itaewon on Hallowe’en, 2022. His 2014 film Non-Fiction Diary, on South Korea’s late-1980s transition from a military-led society to a democracy, won many plaudits around the world, including the Netpac Award at that year’s Berlinale. His 2017 film Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno screened at a.o. International Film Festival Rotterdam. From 2013-2017, Jung Yoon-suk was blacklisted and surveilled by the Park Geun-hye administration’s National Intelligence Services for his incisive, socially engaged activities.
On January 19 of this year, Jung Yoon-suk tried to document the riots unfolding outside Seoul’s Western District Court, in the wake of the country’s political upheaval and temporary martial law earlier that winter. Despite documenting alongside other journalists, Jung Yoon-suk was singled out and arrested with rioters, and his current court procedure, which is taking place without any interview conducted or any evidence provided, levels the accusation of “trespassing and burglary of a special building” against him. Some of Jung Yoon-suk’s footage was shown in broadcaster JTBC’s documentary 12 Days of Civil War earlier this year.
This August 1, Seoul’s Western District Court will finalize their sentencing of Jung Yoon-suk; despite his requests, he has been denied a jury trial as well as the possibility of appeal. Without any thorough investigation or interview, felony charges have been leveled at Jung Yoon-suk and treating him as a criminal.
The ICFR stands with Jung Yoon-suk and joins the Association of Korean Independent Film & Video (KIFV), the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and other colleagues in South Korea in the urgent appeal to the Korean authorities to drop all the charges and release Jung Yoon-suk to immediate safety. We strongly urge our film colleagues around the world to make themselves heard in support of Jung Yoon-suk; as he himself said in his own closing statement earlier this month: “In a democratic society, artists serve as the watchdogs of history (…) For an artist, expression is not merely a matter of freedom; it is a matter of human rights, guaranteeing our dignity and our rights as human beings.”