b. Violation of Principle against Excessive Restriction The Time Restriction Provisions are legislated to ensure a fair election as well as fair election news reports online, suggesting that the legislative purpose is legitimate and they are appropriate means to serve the legislative purpose. However, the Time Restriction Provisions simply regard such election reports unfair without specifically reviewing whether they could be seen unfair. The Time Restriction Provisions restrict publication of columns and etc. written by election candidates that have nothing to do with an election or political speech or that are necessary to satisfy people’s right to know on such issues of enormous public interests. This implies that the Time Restriction Provisions uniformly and comprehensively restrict even the reports that would not hamper fairness of the election. Very broad is the concept of the online media that are subject to deliberation of the online news reports under the Public Official Election Act. Combined with the broad concept of the online media, the Time Restriction Provisions would impose greater restrictions on freedom of speech. Online media have high degree of accessibility, openness, autonomy and spontaneity and are expanding their influences in the media market with the development of Information Technology. It would be desirable to guarantee as much autonomy as possible while minimizing restrictions on freedom of speech. It is necessary to prevent candidates from writing columns, etc. for the online media and using them to help their election campaign to circumvent the law when the public election nears. The Deliberation Standard Provision entails various provisions to regulate such practice, however, and the Public Official Election Act also has many provisions to prevent the press from exerting unfair influences over elections. Hence, the Time Restriction Provisions violate the principle of minimum restrictions. In conclusion, they violate the principle against excessive restriction and infringe upon the Complainant’s freedom of speech. Dissenting Opinion of Three Justices The legislative purpose of the Time Restriction Provisions is to root out the possibility of unequal access or exposure to the online media among candidates at a sensitive time related to election and eventually ensure fair online election news reports. Therefore, legitimacy of the 4