Internet Censorship Still Growing Concern

By Richard Collie

On April 20, a Seoul district court acquitted online commentator Park Dae-sung on all counts of spreading false information with intent to harm the public.

The decision to clear the now infamous blogger, better known as Minerva, pleased activists and Internet freedom campaigners who had claimed the accusations were bogus from the start and, moreover, that the trial was politically motivated.

Park's online blogs gained huge popularity after he proved himself to be an astute economic commentator by accurately predicting the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers and the global financial meltdown.

Crucially though, he was accused of harming consumer confidence and contributing to the current economic downturn after his prediction on Dec. 29, in which he claimed that seven of South Korea's most important finance institutions and export companies had been ordered not to buy U.S. dollars in order to stabilize the won.

Park's defense team no doubt pointed out that on the Dec. 29 trading session the won did not destabilize and actually finished the day stronger against the U.S. dollar.

It seems the prosecution was not able to establish a concrete link between Park and South Korea's economic slowdown. Judge Yoo Young-hyun said in his ruling that he did not think Park ``intended to damage the public interest'' or was ``aware the information was misleading when he wrote the postings.''

Despite the prosecution's inability to provide any convincing evidence that Park broke the law, the blogger was incarcerated for the three-month duration of the trial.

This in itself sends out strong signals from the government. No doubt they hope the Minerva case will serve as a deterrent for the next generation of would-be political bloggers.

The court case attracted the concern of international observers as well as democratic activists here in South Korea. Reporters Without Borders, an independent regulating body that monitors freedom of speech on a global level, criticized the trial and had publicly called for Park to be cleared in a press statement on April 17.

It is a very important issue. South Korea is the world's fourth most connected country, with 85 percent of its people using e-mail regularly. Large proportions of the population communicate via online meetings and regular blog entries.

The power of Web portals such as Daum to spread ideas and news became apparent during the candlelight vigils when huge numbers of ordinary people were mobilized onto the streets to protest against the government's deeply unpopular decision to lift a ban on U.S. beef.

The picture took on a different complexion in recent weeks, with Internet giants Google and YouTube joining in the controversy. Google Korea has said that Gmail is not required to apply the South Korean government's ``Internet real-name system'' to its Web site.

This particular law requires all Web sites with more than 100,000 users a day to subject visitors to an identity check in which real names and resident registration numbers must be submitted.

The ``real name system'' gives the police access to private user information, namely who is accessing the Web site, when they are accessing it, and sometimes what they are saying.

YouTube entered the debate after it told Korean browsers they could bypass the ID check if they did not access the site via its Korean portal.

By entering the site by, for example, YouTube USA and simply altering the language setting, users would have the same access without the need to have the government monitor their browsing activities.

There have even been reports of South Koreans going into ``cyber exile," deserting top Korean Web-mail services such as Daum, Naver and Nate in favor of foreign providers like Gmail that offer greater privacy.

For a country that so often prides itself on having one of the best Internet connection rates in the world, this is an embarrassing turn of events.

Yet there is hope in the fact that the Internet police will not necessarily be given an easy ride as they seek to beef up Internet regulation

Commenting on the Minerva case, Reporters Without Borders sees signs of hope in the court's verdict.

``This acquittal is a sign that the South Korean courts are capable of issuing independent verdicts based on the facts, without yielding to political pressure,'' it said. ``We hope this verdict will encourage the authorities not to prosecute or intimidate Internet users anymore."

Richard Collie is a writer and activist based in Seoul. He writes for a Web site (www.venceremosonline.org) that covers international issues, including, from time to time, those in Korea. He can be reached at richardcollie@hotmail.com.