By Kim Bo-eun
Restrictions on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression persist in Korea, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The 2016 to 2017 report by the global human rights NGO outlines the state of human rights in 159 countries.
“Authorities continued to restrict people from exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, often under the pretext of protecting public order,” it said about Korea in its annual report.
The report referred to the government’s use of force in the suppression of a large scale anti-government rally held in November 2015.
Baek Nam-ki, a rural activist who took part in the rally, fell unconscious after being hit by a police water cannon. He died after being in a coma for 10 months.
“By the end of the year, the authorities had not completed an investigation into the excessive use of force by police against largely peaceful protesters during the rally, nor held accountable any officers or commanding authorities responsible,” the report said.
It also took issue with the government’s curbing of freedom of expression.
It mentioned the National Assembly’s passage last March of an “anti-terrorism bill,” which gives the government the authority to monitor the communications of “citizens who are deemed to have links with terrorism.”
In addition, the report mentioned the authorities’ attempt to regulate press freedom by interfering with news reporting, especially by television broadcasters.
It referred to the government’s use of tactics such as putting pro-government individuals on the boards of influential, state-run media corporations and subjecting journalists to disciplinary measures in cases such as the reporting of the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014.
Moreover, the report touched upon the issue of conscientious objectors, who refuse to be drafted for mandatory military service based on religious beliefs. It stated the objectors “remain in prison solely for exercising their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”