A Japanese journalist denied at a court hearing Thursday charges that he had defamed South Korean President Park Geun-hye by reporting rumors about her whereabouts on the day of April's deadly ferry sinking.
Tatsuya Kato, former head of the Seoul bureau of Japan's conservative Sankei Shimbun newspaper, was indicted on defamation charges for writing an article that Park and an unidentified man had an alleged secret meeting on April 16, citing rumors circulated in South Korea's financial community.