The court also found former President Park Geun-hye involved in the making of the blacklist, recognizing her as an accomplice in the case.

Kim and Cho were indicted in February 2017 on charges of abuse of power and perjury. They are accused of masterminding the creation of a list of nearly 10,000 artists, writers and filmmakers deemed unfriendly to the then conservative administration. Those on the list were denied state subsidies or removed from their jobs in the mainstream media.

Seoul Central District Court put Kim behind bars for three years. But it released Cho on a one-year prison term suspended for two years, only convicting her of perjury.

Kim was in office from mid-2013 to early 2015. Cho served as the presidential secretary for political affairs from June 2014 for about a year and became the culture minister in September last year. (Yonhap)

An appellate court handed down prison terms for two former senior aides to ousted President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday for keeping a secret register of artists deemed critical of her government to disadvantage them in various ways.

Seoul High Court raised the sentence for former chief of staff Kim Ki-choon to four years in jail. He was given three years in the lower court.

The appeals court reversed the lower court's suspended sentence for Cho Yoon-sun, a former culture minister and presidential secretary for political affairs, and meted out a two-year imprisonment, finding her guilty of involvement in the process of creating and managing the list.

Cho was immediately taken into custody following the court ruling. She had been in presentencing jail since February last year and was released in July after receiving the suspended term.

The court also found former President Park Geun-hye involved in the making of the blacklist, recognizing her as an accomplice in the case.

The court upheld the previous verdicts on five other defendants, including ministry and presidential officials, who received 18 months or two years in prison or a suspended sentence.

Kim and Cho were indicted in February 2017 on charges of abuse of power and perjury. They are accused of masterminding the creation of a list of nearly 10,000 artists, writers and filmmakers deemed unfriendly to the then-ruling conservative administration. Those on the list were denied state subsidies or removed from their jobs in the mainstream media.

  The court ruled that the government's uniform exclusion of critical artists from state support violated the Constitution and infringed on the right to not be discriminated against for artistic or cultural expression.

"It is unprecedented that the president and her aides, who are at the top of the highest powers, organized, planned and carried out such discriminatory treatment," the court said. "There is no right or wrong in culture ... once the government discriminates against those who think differently, it leads to totalitarianism."

Regarding the ruling on Cho, the court said that it was hard to conclude that the blacklist was carried out without her direction or approval.

The court acknowledged that former president Park is complicit, as she made explicit in her policy drive to "'set right' the cultural industry which, to her, was left-leaning."

"She instructed Kim to draw up a measure and she received reports on the outcome of senior secretaries' meeting over the matter," it noted. "This indicates a comprehensive approval by the president of the blacklist."

Seoul Central District Court put Kim behind bars for three years. But it released Cho on a one-year prison term suspended for two years, only convicting her of perjury.

Kim was in office from mid-2013 to early 2015. Cho served as the presidential secretary for political affairs from June 2014 for about a year and became the culture minister in September last year. (Yonhap)