<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><FONT BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">As this discussion is now broadening, <BR>
might I toss some related items into the pot?<BR>
<BR>
1. The Internet aside, there appear to be concerns too<BR>
regarding other media. President Roh Moo-hyun's oft<BR>
expressed distaste for the main Seoul dailies seems <BR>
unhealthy in a head of state. Even under Kim Dae-jung,<BR>
tax and other audits of the Chosun Ilbo et al looked ominous,<BR>
and attracted international criticism. Such threats are<BR>
apparently now being renewed.<BR>
<BR>
2. Conversely, it is widely claimed that broadcast media<BR>
(KBS and MBC, specifically) reflect the present government's<BR>
agenda and mindset to the virtual exclusion of other viewpoints;<BR>
even, for instance, in covering the impeachment episode.<BR>
Might regular viewers care to comment?<BR>
<BR>
3. One specific tale which stunned me is the possibly terminal<BR>
harassment of an Internet radio station in Seoul run by DPRK<BR>
defectors, for being "unpatriotic." (More details and comment at:<BR>
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FE18Dg01.html )<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Admittedly it is hard to judge from a distance; but all this, too,<BR>
seems regrettable, or even disturbing.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER<BR>
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University <BR>
17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK <BR>
tel: +44(0) 1274 588586 mobile: +44(0) 7970 741307 <BR>
fax: +44(0) 1274 773663 ISDN: +44(0) 1274 589280<BR>
Email: afostercarter@aol.com website: www.aidanfc.net<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
In a message dated 09/07/2004 09:44:21 GMT Standard Time, jsburgeson@yahoo.com writes:<BR>
<BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subj:<B>Re: [KS] Censorship in democratic Korea </B><BR>
Date:09/07/2004 09:44:21 GMT Standard Time<BR>
From:<A HREF="mailto:jsburgeson@yahoo.com">jsburgeson@yahoo.com</A><BR>
Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</A><BR>
To:<A HREF="mailto:Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</A><BR>
<I>Sent from the Internet </I><BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
A letter in Friday's Korea Herald and an article in<BR>
Friday's JoongAng Daily report that dozens of<BR>
Korean-based foreigner-made blogs have had their<BR>
access shut down by the ROK government. The excuse by<BR>
the government is that a foreiger's Web site here had<BR>
had the Kim Sun-il video clip posted on it and that<BR>
this was an infringement of citizens' right to<BR>
happiness, since they could suffer trauma by seeing<BR>
the video. Indiscriminate blocking of an entire<BR>
category of Web sites simply because they are run by<BR>
foreigners seems like a slash-and-burn approach to<BR>
regulating free speech to me, or perhaps is, quite<BR>
ironically, an appropriation of George W. Bush's<BR>
doctrine of "pre-emption."<BR>
<BR>
One might also note that access to adult sites in<BR>
public PC bangs is blocked to all customers in South<BR>
Korea regardless of age, and if you are a foreigner<BR>
you cannot access them anywhere without a national ID<BR>
number, which also smacks of indirect censorship. It<BR>
also seems that if you do not follow the government's<BR>
new romanization system online, you can even be fined!<BR>
<BR>
Along with bans on assorted North Korean Web sites,<BR>
it seems that nationalism and morality clearly trump<BR>
free speech in the South Korea of 2004. But this is<BR>
not exactly earth-shattering news, is it?<BR>
<BR>
--Scott Bug <BR>
<BR>
</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>
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