By Michael Breen
The arrest last week of a man said to be the mysterious online economic fortune-teller Minerva has raised a debate about freedom in Korea.
The establishment does not seem to have a problem about the detention of Minerva, aka Park Dae-seong, for allegedly having written that the government had ordered major banks not to buy dollars. Minerva's views were so widely followed that the government had to spend $2 billion to stabilize the market.
But many netizens see his arrest as an infringement of their liberty to post online.
In any free society, freedom is tempered by an obligation to be mindful of the rights of others. Those rights vary from country to country.
In some regards, Koreans are freer than citizens of other countries. For example, while drivers are forced by law to stop at a red light in advanced countries such as Denmark and Ireland, Koreans are free to choose their response. That is because, under Korean law, a red stoplight means, ``How are you? Please stop if two or three cars have already gone through me, unless we're in the countryside in which it's a case-by-case situation, or unless you're a bus serving the people.''
In populous countries like America, people are very sensitive about issues such as gender and race, which do not concern us so much here, and freedom of speech is accordingly restricted. That's why John Gray's famous Mars and Venus book was published in America under the title, ``Women are from Venus and Men are from Where Women Say They Are'' while in Korea it was, ``Men are from Mars and Women Aren't.''
Another example: You can be charged in America for rudely referring to the color of someone's skin, but not, say, to the size of their ears. That's why, when President Lee meets President-elect Obama, he could be arrested for saying, ``You're black,'' but would have no problem if he said, ``You have big ears.''
Given these differences, while international comment on the Minerva case tends to be about the right to free speech, in Korea it's about responsibility. In approaching this, you find that non-Koreans tend to look at the meaning of words, while Koreans focus on their impact.
And this distinction comes down to the question of popularity. If you are a netizen who is unaware of your fan-base, you could find yourself in trouble.
For some people, humility could be their undoing.
It's well known, for example, that people who comment on the pages of this fine organ are widely emulated by little children all over Korea. But they might not know this. And, unlike the journalists who write here, and the analysts they quote, netizen commentators are not trained to be careful with words ― or spelling, for that matter.
Take, by way of random example, comments under the articles in Tuesday's Korea Times (Monday night online). One story was about a foreign professor here who had been convicted of child molestation in his home country. It raised some interesting issues, one of which that the ``molestation'' may not have been as nasty as it sounds because it was officially removed from his criminal record in the U.S. There was also no suggestion, at least not with this first story, of repeat offenses. This is interesting, because people who prey sexually on children always do it again.
Here's how some of our commentators' discussed the issues. Someone called ``magnetickorea'' got the ball rolling with: ``BAN ALL FOREIGNERS FROM TEACHING IN KOREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!''
Another, archeologist2, weighed in with: ``how did they find out? the score now is 2 AMERICAN child molesters to 1 canadian that have worked in korea. guess itis timefor the americans tohave a v.s.s. added to their c.r.c. just like the canadians have to do.''
Then, from jewboyz, ``magnetickorea says to ban all foreigners from teaching in Korea. I say to ban all Koreans from civilized countries! (that includes the U.S., Europe and Japan).''
jimbo1, responding to archeologist1, said, ``BTW arsewipe, add to that score of yours the following: >100 krean kids raped while teachers did nothing. Krean children molested by fathers who were aquitted because they were drunk. Kreans raping their niece only to have her returned to them for more abuse."
koreanforeigner responded to jewboyz, saying, ``you're a racist, reneck, hick ... go find some friends, LOSER.''
If I were a prosecutor, I wouldn't know where to start.
Michael Breen is chairman of Insight Communications Consultants Exclusive Partner of FD International. He can be reached at mike.breen@insightcomms.com
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