AP, Seoul :A Japanese reporter on Thursday pleaded not guilty to charges of defaming South Korea’s president by reporting rumors that she was absent for seven hours during a ferry disaster in April because she was with a man.The indictment of Tatsuya Kato of Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper has raised questions about South Korea’s press freedoms. Critics accuse South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s conservative government of clamping down on journalists in an attempt to control her image. It also comes at a low point for Japanese-Korean relations due to a territorial dispute over a small island and conflicts over wartime history.Kato was indicted over his Aug. 3 article about Park’s whereabouts on the day the Sewol ferry sank and killed more than 300 passengers, mostly teenagers on a school trip. The article repeated rumors in South Korean media and the financial industry about a relationship between Park and a former aide who was said to be married at the time.
