Student Corner Restrictions on Freedom of Speech

By Song Ah-young

The clash between the government and the people on the Internet real-name policy is finally seeing its end. The ubiquity of the Internet in Korea since the early 1990s has seen cyberspace become very much a part of people's lives. Whether it is a means to express one's opinion or to keep in touch with friends on the other side of the planet, more and more people are insisting upon their right to express their opinions through the Internet.

Although the active participation of people in the fields of politics via this media was a big leap for South Korea, a society where democracy is short lived, the rapid proliferation of the Internet has also brought about some side-effects. People have often posted on the Web things challenging government policy or they have attempted to defame others.

The government may be afraid of ``Ring of Gyges,'' a story from the ``Nation-state''' by Plato, a symbol of secret freedom that people wield behind anonymity without getting punished. However, there lies the possibility that such attitudes, like blocking the way for people to communicate without other's engagement, may be seen as totalitarianism.

It is true that big brother's role is to protect national security thereby pursuing national interest. It is also true that the Internet is an unprecedented media to serve as a conveyer of current information among individuals. As both sides' opinions can be justified, the government should have struggled to bridge the gap between the two. The real-name policy may not have been the perfect answer for problems that arose due to this new mechanism.

As part of the generation that uses the Internet most actively, I deeply feel the setbacks of the Internet are something that we all have to get used to and understand as part of its characteristic. The characteristic here I mean is being able to criticize someone or something and express various opinions. Koreans tend to take ``criticism'' solely in a negative light. However criticism isn't always bad and sometimes it even brings the development of a society. If the government doesn't protect the people's right to express themselves freely, a policy intended to hinder distortions in information accuracy could become something draconian.

The blue house suggested this policy in terms of securing democratic values. Especially, the recent formation of anti-governmental groups had lit flames on the act. Yet, I cannot help keep raising the doubt that the real-name policy is a silk road to protect democratic values. The real democratic value is to listen to the people, cope with problems, and try to compromise the clashing values; not just to bash confronting ideas.

For according to Confucianism no value is superior to another, and we should try to find the golden mean in these two colliding standpoints. Instead of totally restricting people's freedom of speech, the government could consider implementing a system that lets people self-filter any extreme opinions that violate others' rights. This is called a ``Pan Opticon'' society where people are watchdogs over one another without the involvement of big brother, the state.

Song Ah-young is a graduate of Uniworld High School in Australia.