Korea is one of the top four internet connected countries and their world respected technological accomplishments have earned them a reputation as an ultra modern technology savvy population. The country has also had its fair share of heartache and pain reaching this level of development.
Their 48.5 million citizens are facing a new challenge to their freedoms with the Government implementing controversial media libel laws which may affect the country’s democracy.
The Korean Communications and Securities Commission (K.C.S.C.) which regulates internet and broadcast media has been given new powers enabling them to suspend articles accused of being fraudulent or defamatory for a period of 30 days. During that time the Commission must decide if the article should be deleted permanently.
From 1st April the new law requires websites with traffic over 100,000 hits per day to make users register with their national identification number and telephone or bank account number.
Internet service providers are also required to block access to any websites the Government decides is inappropriate for public viewing.
While this measure has been used mostly to block pornography and online gaming there have also been instances of pro-North Korean and anti-government websites being blocked.
This change to the law enables the K.C.S.C. and perhaps the Government to whom it reports, to block any articles, blog postings and material they deem unsuitable.
Also within the law is the ‘propagation of a falsehood’ clause which allows an individual or group to be arrested for posting malicious or defamatory material.
This clause was tested in January this year with the arrest and trial of Park Dae-Sung, alias ‘Minerva’, for allegedly posting material online that influenced and damaged the Korean economy. He was released on April 20th this year after four months in prison.
In April this year YouTube-Korea ignored this law by disabling their video upload feature in Korean but allowing Korean users to switch to their English site to upload.
This law and its many clauses came into effect soon after the U.S beef import protests in May last year. The majority of protests were organized online and bloggers were able to upload real time information of when and where the protests would take place including any last minute changes.
The majority of protesters bringing many cities to a standstill were school and university students. Many Koreans initially protested wanting food protection regulation. This quickly turned into anti-government protests as the Government ignored their pleas to ban contaminated beef.
During this time President Lee’s approval rating fell below 20%.
While news services reported the facts of the protests, Korea’s strong internet community chat room forums were the places where debate, discussion and organization took place.
The internet became the forum where the President - nicknamed ‘2 megabyte’ for his bad memory and admitted aversion to technology - was mocked and anti-president chat rooms were set up.
The main website used during this time was the popular site ‘Agora’ which is a user up voting system where users decide which articles are worthy of being on the front page.
The consequences of this affected Korea’s general internet population as well as news services that operate primarily on the net.
Online text video and radio news services in Korea now outperform traditional broadcast and newspaper mediums with more Koreans downloading news and information through their high-speed low cost broadband service.
Independent documentary film maker So Eun-Ju views this type of law as nothing more than a Government crackdown on freedom.
“Back in the 80’s students protested and the military government was cruel to them. Now students and people use the net to protest and the government blocks them and bans them.”
News services will also fall under this new libel law with independent news under threat.
Eun-Ju sees this as the end of independent news.
“The big news services won’t challenge the government. Last year they almost lost the right to have a government press corp. They are too scared to challenge President Lee.”
Theoretically the Government now has the power to block or ban any article they see as damaging to their administration or big business.
In response to the changes a new community of cyber exiles has emerged, blogging on websites outside of Korea’s jurisdiction. They are also creating mini pages designed to operate ‘under the radar’ by staying under 100,000 hits per day.
Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world and Koreans use of the internet as a tool for discussion, debate and protest has been unmatched in many other countries.
This change in the internet law means Koreans lose a popular forum where they can express their views openly and freely. The Government’s ability to block material they deem offensive or inappropriate will result in the loss of valuable freedoms - freedoms that modern day Korea has been founded on.
