By Park Si-soo
The state human rights agency has suggested the government and its Internet regulator take measures to remove racially discriminating comments and articles in cyberspace.
“Our society is quickly shifting to a multi-racial one. But the Internet is still flooded with articles abusive and discriminative toward foreign residents here,” the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in a statement.
The commission called on the Ministry of Justice and the Korea Internet Self-governance Organization to come up with countermeasures against discriminative language, which it says could hamper social integration.
The NHRC said it monitored Korean-language websites from October and found articles objecting to cross-border marriages — in order to maintain “ethnical homogeneity” — and depicting certain racial groups as masterminds of terrorism.
Some carried discriminatory expressions against those from certain developing countries on the basis of their nationality or skin color.
For instance, a memo posted on a portal ahead of the G20 Seoul Summit last year read: “Muslims should be banned from approaching within 2 kilometers of the conference venues for fear of possible terrorism.”
Another article called immigrant workers from developing countries “criminals and germ-carriers” and said “foreigners here lack a law-abiding spirit.”
A popular TV show was caught running a subtitle describing a pale-looking actor with curly hair as a “drug trafficker from Southeast Asia.”
In 2007, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed discomfort about the prevalent notion in Korean culture concerning “pure bloodedness.”
The committee then recommended that South Korea push for separate legislation to introduce the definition of racial discrimination and spell out its illegality.
It also called for the establishment of a legal framework to ban racial discrimination and crack down on racially-motivated crimes.
Despite the recommendation and ensuing campaigns by human rights activists, an anti-racism law has not been enacted as yet.
“It’s time to establish concrete measures to root out racism from not only society but also the Internet,” the NHRC said. “It would be a step in the right direction to realize a harmonized multi-racial society where people take care of each other regardless of their ethnic and cultural background.”
인권위 “인터넷상 `인종차별' 표현 없애야”
국가인권위원회는 우리나라 다문화 환경에서 갈등을 최소화하고 사회통합을 이루기 위한 제도적 접근이 필요하다고 판단, 법무부 장관에게 외국인 관련 정책 수립 시 인터넷상 인종차별적 표현을 개선하는 방안이 포함되도록 할 것을 권고했다고 9일 밝혔다.
인권위는 또 한국인터넷자율정책기구이사회 의장에게는 인터넷상 인종을 차별하거나 이를 조장하는 표현물이 유통되지 않도록 노력해야 한다는 내용의 의견을 표명했다.
인권위에 따르면 지난해 10월 한 달간 인터넷상 인종차별적 표현 등을 모니터링한 결과 '혼혈인 증가를 막으려면 국제결혼을 중단시켜야 한다'는 등 뿌리 깊은 순혈주의, 특정국가 출신 외국인을 테러리즘과 연결해 위협적인 존재로 부각시키는 경향 등이 엿보인 글이 다수 발견됐다.
일부 인터넷 카페와 댓글에서는 특정 국가나 피부색에 대한 편견 등 인종차별적 표현, 외국인 노동자에 대한 반감과 왜곡된 인식 등이 드러나 있다.
실례로 중동 출신의 국내 체류 외국인에 대해 테러리즘과 연계해 위험의 대상으로 표현됐고 사실과 다른 내용을 인터넷에 게시해 외국인에 대한 부정적 이미지를 부추기는 글도 있었다.
인권위는 이어 "민간영역에서도 인터넷 포털사들이 인종차별적 표현물을 자율적으로 규제할 수 있는 시스템을 마련해 존중과 배려의 다문화 사회로 진입할 수 있도록 우리 사회의 적극적인 노력이 필요하다"고 지적했다.
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