[KS] Censorship in democratic Korea

[D. Scofield]

Actually, the public outcry was hardly the ground-swell of disgust that some 
articles (Chosun) would have us believe. Most members of Korea's most 
popular on-line forums, for example, did not protest MBC's broadcast of the 
Berg video. Indeed, the video was/is freely available on the internet in 
Korea.

It is also worth noting that South Korean officials have not shown the same 
concern for other victims of terrorism. Less than a week after the 9-11 
attacks, advertisements using cartoon images of Bin Laden and the towers 
were shown throughout Seoul in a bid to sell a Sports newspaper.

As for media censorship, it's interesting that the majority of South Koreans 
are either unaware of the government's on-going IP blocking campaign or are 
not interested. Korea's avid internet users, those seemingly most effected 
by the governments actions, have remained generally silent on the issue. No 
candle-light vigils in memory of lost freedoms.

David Scofield


>From: "T.N. Park" <tnpark at mac.com>
>Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>Subject: Re: [KS] Censorship in democratic Korea
>Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 12:02:45 +0900
>
>Steven Capener wrote:
> > While not directly related to the topic of censorship raised by Brother
> > Anthony regarding blocking sites showing the behheading of the Korean 
>citizen,
> > it is noteworhty, and worthy of censure, to point out that MBC showed 
>the
> > beheading of an American citizen only bothering to blot out the severed 
>head
> > as it was held up.
>
> >From Michael Anderson
> > I have signed one of the online petitions,
> > http://www.petitiononline.com/hole64/petition.html, not as a Yonhap 
>editor of
> > course, but out of personal concerns. In addition to stifling free 
>speech, it
> > gives the appearance of racism--videos of Nick Berg's murder were widely
> > distributed over the Internet here, and even aired on MBC television, 
>while
> > the government encouraged blocking of the South Korean national's 
>beheading on
> > video.
>
>There was considerable public outcry against MBC for having shown the Berg
>beheading almost in its entirety ...
>
>http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200405/200405130057.html
>
>... and the government's media watchdog came down on them. The perhaps
>overboard pre-emptive response to video of Kim Sun-il's was a direct result
>of that.
>
>T'NP
>
>
>

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