By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

An international media rights watchdog included South Korea along with repressive regimes such as North Korea and Iran in its list of countries that pose a threat of Internet censorship.

In its ``Enemies of the Internet'' report published Friday (KST), the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) claimed that in South Korea, ``Draconian laws are creating too many specific restrictions on Web users by challenging their anonymity and promoting self-censorship.''

Australia was also among the nations accused of excessive Internet control, joining South Korea in the report's ``under surveillance'' category, which also included Russia and Turkey.

The RSF also picked 12 countries ― North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam ― as ``Enemies of the Internet,'' which the group rated as the worst freedom violators.

After being kicked in the teeth by bloggers in the earlier part of the administration, first for its controversial decision to resume U.S. beef reports and later for its economic policies, the Lee Myung-bak government had been attempting to impose rules on Internet users.

The increasing level of Web surveillance here had many Internet users feel threatened and become ``cyber exiles,'' moving their e-mail accounts, blogs and Web sites to foreign Internet services like Google to avoid the government's watchful eye.

Since April last year, Internet users were required to register with a verifiable real-name before posting comments on Web sites that had more than 100,000 daily visitors, a measure government officials claimed as essential for curbing cyber-bullying and libelous claims on the Internet.

And the country's renewed anti-file-sharing provisions allows authorities to shutdown Web sites after a third warning over copyright infringements and cut off Internet access of users accused of sharing copyrighted files with or without complaints of copyright holders.

Due to the loose definition of copyrighted content, which may also include news articles and even blog posts, critics argued that the new rules may pose a threat to online liberties.

In January of last year, law enforcement authorities arrested Park Dae-sung, a popular blogger known more widely as ``Minerva,'' who had repeatedly criticized the government for its alleged ineptitude in economic policies. Park was later released.

And the government was also criticized for its clampdown on MBC television, which it accused of twisting facts in a controversial documentary program on the alleged health risks of U.S. beef, and also the striking unionists at YTN, a cable news channel. The prosecution's investigation on both television stations involved frequent search and seizures of employees' e-mail records.

``You would prefer a democratic government to promote freedom, not decrease the level of freedom,'' Vincent Brossel, an RSF official, told The Korea Times in an interview last year, when he visited Seoul to examine the criminal investigation of MBC television.

``With the country experiencing more than 10 years of a democratic system, we expected that there would be more stability in these types of matters.''

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr