South Korea lifts travel ban on Japanese journalist

South Korea has lifted an overseas travel ban on a Japanese journalist charged with defaming the South Korean president, officials said today.
Tatsuya Kato had been banned from leaving South Korea since last August while prosecutors investigated his article about rumors that President Park Geun-hye was absent for seven hours during a ferry disaster that left more than 300 people dead last year because she was with a man.
Seoul prosecutors eventually indicted Kato, a former Seoul bureau chief of the conservative Sankei Shimbun newspaper, last October. The indictment raised questions about South Korea's media freedom.
Seoul prosecutors' office said today that the Justice Ministry had accepted its request to lift the travel ban.

A senior prosecutor said the decision was made after judges determined that Kato's report was inaccurate and that he had promised to attend the remaining sessions in his court case in Seoul. The prosecutor, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is still ongoing, said the fact Kato's aging mother is sick was also a factor in allowing him to return home.
The prosecutor said he had no information on when the court case would end and when a verdict was expected.
The Justice Ministry confirmed that Kato's travel ban has been lifted but gave no further details.