“Republic of Korea is a democratic republic country, therefore the sovereign power is up to the citizens and all authority comes from Korean citizens”. “All citizens have a freedom of press and freedom of meeting unless the press or the meeting harms others rights of reputation, if so the victim can demand for a compensation for damage”. These two constitutions inform that Republic of Korea is a democratic country and all Korean citizens have their own rights to speak and express their own opinion. Freedom of speech is very important to a democratic country because without this freedom of speech, there would be no difference with communism. Democracy is all about freedom, right of citizens, and gathering all the people with different thoughts and combining them to one with debating, not with violence. Freedom of speech can be considered to be a first step to democracy but this freedom of speech of Korean citizens is restricted and ignored now.
In the election of 2007, Myeongbak, Lee was elected for president. During his campaign, there were several issues about him. First, he was known for the one who can improve the economy of Korea since he was a business man before his political career. This caught large number of people’s attentions because many Koreans wanted their country to be economically strong. Second issue was about Lee’s own company, BBK. This have became a big issue because the stocks of the company were said to be manipulated for his prosperity. When the police started the investigation about this, Lee had an interview and said that he did not institute BBK. After few weeks, other candidates who were running against Lee discovered that Lee hided this video clip of his lecture of one college. In this video, Lee himself said that he instituted BBK and explains about it to the students during economy class. After this event Lee soon changed his position to that his colleague, Kyungjun, Kim manipulated the stock market while Lee jut instituted BBK. This case ended by making Kyungjun, Kim guilty but making Lee innocent. Even though he might be innocent from that case but is true that he tried to block some of the internet blogs and reporters to broadcast the lecture video which is unconstitutional.
FTA, Free Trade Agreement among Korea and the U.S. was another big issue the Lee made. Right after he got elected, he started to change all the treaties that the previous president, Muhyeon, Noe, made. Since American beef had a possible danger of the Mad Cow Disease(MCD), President Noe tried to import beefs that were kept less than 30 months which can dramatically reduce the possibility of MCD. But, U.S. refuses this suggestion and President Noe stopped negotiating at that point. But Lee changed this agreement to import all part of cows that were kept more than 30 months, including the part where most of the MCD viruses are concentrated, and all these were changed in less than 8 days. Moreover he restricted some news reporters to broadcast the videos that had an opinion against President Lee to make sure that citizens did not know about this and tried to contract this agreement without any votes or debates. According to this honest reporter form Korea Times, Yunse, Kim, President Lee asked the reporters who were at this certain conference where President Lee started clapping after the decision to import the cows with the danger of MCD to not broadcast or write a article about this conference because it would make President Lee looks like that he does not care about Korean citizens. When the reporters refute with his opinion he started to force the reporters to do so. If reporter Kim did not make this confession to public, this truth might have been banned forever. Even though President Lee did not use any violence or money, the reporters could be under pressure or fear. After the confession of reporter Kim, other reporter started to write some articles about it and people started to know the truth.
Citizens in Korea were so mad at this agreement, not just because of the danger of MCD, but also because of the manner of President Lee. People thought that this agreement is unconstitutional and gathered up for demonstration. Thousands of people were gathered up to the street with lighted candles and started the peace demonstration. But President Lee considered this rally unconstitutional and ordered the police to suppress the demonstration and this process of the suppression was unlawful. Polices use powerful water hose and violence to suppress the demonstration and several people were injured. Some were even blinded because of powerful water stream that directly hit their heads. The freedom of speech, press, and demonstration was completely ignored by President Lee.
Moreover, normal video blogger was considered to be unlawful to President Lee’s administration. When Lehman Brothers Company bankrupted, the whole world was shocked. Almost no one could foretell Lehman Brothers Company would fall down, but there was normal Korean blogger who predicted the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Company. He self-studied economy for about 10 years, but since he did not even graduated high school, most of the people did not even listen to him in offline, so he started to post his prediction about the economy on the internet with his nickname, Minareba. After predicting the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Company, he soon became famous and people started to agree with his opinion. In his blog, he criticized President Lee and his administration and all the predictions that he made, such as stock market crash, the decrease of value of Korean currency, and inflation. They were all correct, at that time, he was actually better than the current administration and people started to call him the “president”. By the time of January 7th 2009, a group of police came to his house to arrest him. He was arrested for saying the false information about the current government. The police said that he posted the wrong information about the current administration which made many citizens to be confused but in reality, it was just an opinion of his or his prediction which did not seem to be correct. In addition to this, even if it was false information, it cannot be a cyber crime unless he had a certain purpose to it and now, he is in a jail for posting his opinions on the internet. Minareba himself said that he was shocked by the fact that government can actually arrest a citizen for posting such contents.
Jo-sun, Joong-ang, and Dong-a companies are three big newspaper press in Korea. These presses and news reporters are the “eyes” of citizens that tell the citizens about inside and outside of the country. President Lee tries to dominate these presses and control them after few problems that he had previously. In order to do that, he made Sanghoon Bang, Pillho Song, and Hakjoon Kim to be the new bosses of Jo-sun, Joong-ang, and Dong-a press by using a special amnesty act to discharge their penalties. Sanghoon Bang was discharged his from his penalty of 7years in jail for embezzlement and both Pillho Song and Hakjoon Kim were discharged from tax evasion. After replacing the bosses of newspaper, he replaced the federal communications commissioner to Sijoon, Choi. Right after he became a commissioner, commissioner Choi gave penalties to all broadcasting programs that criticize President Lee. For example, “PD’s Notes” from MBC got penalized for broadcasting the harm of MCD of American cows. Kwanyong, Jung, famous MC in debating shows, was fired immediately for harshly criticizing the government. The stage crews and MCs of “Live, Politics Tonight” and “Media Focus” were completely replaced which ended up with abolishing it. When some of the reporters asked the commissioner Choi about these events, he said that those programs were broadcasting the wrong information to the citizens and exaggerated which made the citizens to fear.
Commissioner Choi is also known as a person who passed so called “Media Laws”. This “Media Laws” are known as the laws to dominate the press. Integrated Service Digital Network Act, Broadcasting Act, Newspaper Act, Press Arbitration Act, Dissemination Act, Multimedia Act, and DTV (desktop video) Act are those laws that are called to be the “Media Laws” (Chuhon 129). First, Integrated Service Digital Network Act was passed to punish those citizens who criticize other people, such as the president, for cyber crime. Arresting Minareba was the case using this law. Broadcasting Act and Newspaper Act changed the formal regulation that restricted government and big companies to make a broadcasting company and newspaper press company. Next, Press Arbitration Act gives culture minister a right to appoint leaders of state-run organizations. Culture Minister Yu In-chon used this law to harass three leaders that formal President Noe appointed which finally lead them to resign under pressure. The three are Oh Ji-cheol from the Korea National Tourism Organization, Jeong Sun-gyun of the Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corporation and Shin Hyun-taek, from the Seoul Arts Center, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which supervise these state-run organizations. Additionally, Multimedia Act allows the cross-ownership of newspaper and TV broadcasting which means if one company or a government makes a newspaper press company, it can also make a TV broadcasting company to not only publish their opinion by newspaper but also by TV. Lastly, DTV Act allows foreign fund to be used for instituting press company for globalization which may also allow some foreigner to publish newspaper with wrong or exaggerated information to brain wash some of the Korean citizens. These laws are currently being reviewed but the laws are technically passed right now.
Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist (Friedman 15). “Friendly Business” was a phrase that Myeongbak, Lee had during his presidential campaign. This phrase means that business should be done in friendly situation in order to improve our economy. His promise to improve our economy to top 7 ranking in the world was a lie. Half of his pledges during his campaign were not realized. Instead of Friendly Business, Friendly Press might be a suitable phrase to him. Now it is not about regaining Korean citizen’s economy back, it is about regaining Korean citizen’s freedom, rights, and their democracy back.
이명박 언론장악에 대해서 미국에알렷음
ㅋㅋㅋ 뭐 제목디따 거창한데
오바마한테 편지같은거 쓴것도아니고..
일인시위를한건아니지만..
그냥 학교과제물로 인권이 존중되고있지않는 나라/사건 등을 6페이지분량으로 쓰레서
이명박이 언론의 자유를 제한하는걸중심으로 영어로 썻어여 유학생이라.. (좀어림)
막 자료조사하면서 보니까
몰랏던 사실이많더군여, 맨날 수박겉핡기식으로만알다가 ㅋ
그래서 선생님한테 줫는데
근데 선생님이 흥미롭다면서, 반전체로읽어줬는데
왠지 뿌듯해서;
그냥 그렇다고여
요건 텍스트
Friendly Press
“Republic of Korea is a democratic republic country, therefore the sovereign power is up to the citizens and all authority comes from Korean citizens”. “All citizens have a freedom of press and freedom of meeting unless the press or the meeting harms others rights of reputation, if so the victim can demand for a compensation for damage”. These two constitutions inform that Republic of Korea is a democratic country and all Korean citizens have their own rights to speak and express their own opinion. Freedom of speech is very important to a democratic country because without this freedom of speech, there would be no difference with communism. Democracy is all about freedom, right of citizens, and gathering all the people with different thoughts and combining them to one with debating, not with violence. Freedom of speech can be considered to be a first step to democracy but this freedom of speech of Korean citizens is restricted and ignored now.
In the election of 2007, Myeongbak, Lee was elected for president. During his campaign, there were several issues about him. First, he was known for the one who can improve the economy of Korea since he was a business man before his political career. This caught large number of people’s attentions because many Koreans wanted their country to be economically strong. Second issue was about Lee’s own company, BBK. This have became a big issue because the stocks of the company were said to be manipulated for his prosperity. When the police started the investigation about this, Lee had an interview and said that he did not institute BBK. After few weeks, other candidates who were running against Lee discovered that Lee hided this video clip of his lecture of one college. In this video, Lee himself said that he instituted BBK and explains about it to the students during economy class. After this event Lee soon changed his position to that his colleague, Kyungjun, Kim manipulated the stock market while Lee jut instituted BBK. This case ended by making Kyungjun, Kim guilty but making Lee innocent. Even though he might be innocent from that case but is true that he tried to block some of the internet blogs and reporters to broadcast the lecture video which is unconstitutional.
FTA, Free Trade Agreement among Korea and the U.S. was another big issue the Lee made. Right after he got elected, he started to change all the treaties that the previous president, Muhyeon, Noe, made. Since American beef had a possible danger of the Mad Cow Disease(MCD), President Noe tried to import beefs that were kept less than 30 months which can dramatically reduce the possibility of MCD. But, U.S. refuses this suggestion and President Noe stopped negotiating at that point. But Lee changed this agreement to import all part of cows that were kept more than 30 months, including the part where most of the MCD viruses are concentrated, and all these were changed in less than 8 days. Moreover he restricted some news reporters to broadcast the videos that had an opinion against President Lee to make sure that citizens did not know about this and tried to contract this agreement without any votes or debates. According to this honest reporter form Korea Times, Yunse, Kim, President Lee asked the reporters who were at this certain conference where President Lee started clapping after the decision to import the cows with the danger of MCD to not broadcast or write a article about this conference because it would make President Lee looks like that he does not care about Korean citizens. When the reporters refute with his opinion he started to force the reporters to do so. If reporter Kim did not make this confession to public, this truth might have been banned forever. Even though President Lee did not use any violence or money, the reporters could be under pressure or fear. After the confession of reporter Kim, other reporter started to write some articles about it and people started to know the truth.
Citizens in Korea were so mad at this agreement, not just because of the danger of MCD, but also because of the manner of President Lee. People thought that this agreement is unconstitutional and gathered up for demonstration. Thousands of people were gathered up to the street with lighted candles and started the peace demonstration. But President Lee considered this rally unconstitutional and ordered the police to suppress the demonstration and this process of the suppression was unlawful. Polices use powerful water hose and violence to suppress the demonstration and several people were injured. Some were even blinded because of powerful water stream that directly hit their heads. The freedom of speech, press, and demonstration was completely ignored by President Lee.
Moreover, normal video blogger was considered to be unlawful to President Lee’s administration. When Lehman Brothers Company bankrupted, the whole world was shocked. Almost no one could foretell Lehman Brothers Company would fall down, but there was normal Korean blogger who predicted the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Company. He self-studied economy for about 10 years, but since he did not even graduated high school, most of the people did not even listen to him in offline, so he started to post his prediction about the economy on the internet with his nickname, Minareba. After predicting the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Company, he soon became famous and people started to agree with his opinion. In his blog, he criticized President Lee and his administration and all the predictions that he made, such as stock market crash, the decrease of value of Korean currency, and inflation. They were all correct, at that time, he was actually better than the current administration and people started to call him the “president”. By the time of January 7th 2009, a group of police came to his house to arrest him. He was arrested for saying the false information about the current government. The police said that he posted the wrong information about the current administration which made many citizens to be confused but in reality, it was just an opinion of his or his prediction which did not seem to be correct. In addition to this, even if it was false information, it cannot be a cyber crime unless he had a certain purpose to it and now, he is in a jail for posting his opinions on the internet. Minareba himself said that he was shocked by the fact that government can actually arrest a citizen for posting such contents.
Jo-sun, Joong-ang, and Dong-a companies are three big newspaper press in Korea. These presses and news reporters are the “eyes” of citizens that tell the citizens about inside and outside of the country. President Lee tries to dominate these presses and control them after few problems that he had previously. In order to do that, he made Sanghoon Bang, Pillho Song, and Hakjoon Kim to be the new bosses of Jo-sun, Joong-ang, and Dong-a press by using a special amnesty act to discharge their penalties. Sanghoon Bang was discharged his from his penalty of 7years in jail for embezzlement and both Pillho Song and Hakjoon Kim were discharged from tax evasion. After replacing the bosses of newspaper, he replaced the federal communications commissioner to Sijoon, Choi. Right after he became a commissioner, commissioner Choi gave penalties to all broadcasting programs that criticize President Lee. For example, “PD’s Notes” from MBC got penalized for broadcasting the harm of MCD of American cows. Kwanyong, Jung, famous MC in debating shows, was fired immediately for harshly criticizing the government. The stage crews and MCs of “Live, Politics Tonight” and “Media Focus” were completely replaced which ended up with abolishing it. When some of the reporters asked the commissioner Choi about these events, he said that those programs were broadcasting the wrong information to the citizens and exaggerated which made the citizens to fear.
Commissioner Choi is also known as a person who passed so called “Media Laws”. This “Media Laws” are known as the laws to dominate the press. Integrated Service Digital Network Act, Broadcasting Act, Newspaper Act, Press Arbitration Act, Dissemination Act, Multimedia Act, and DTV (desktop video) Act are those laws that are called to be the “Media Laws” (Chuhon 129). First, Integrated Service Digital Network Act was passed to punish those citizens who criticize other people, such as the president, for cyber crime. Arresting Minareba was the case using this law. Broadcasting Act and Newspaper Act changed the formal regulation that restricted government and big companies to make a broadcasting company and newspaper press company. Next, Press Arbitration Act gives culture minister a right to appoint leaders of state-run organizations. Culture Minister Yu In-chon used this law to harass three leaders that formal President Noe appointed which finally lead them to resign under pressure. The three are Oh Ji-cheol from the Korea National Tourism Organization, Jeong Sun-gyun of the Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corporation and Shin Hyun-taek, from the Seoul Arts Center, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which supervise these state-run organizations. Additionally, Multimedia Act allows the cross-ownership of newspaper and TV broadcasting which means if one company or a government makes a newspaper press company, it can also make a TV broadcasting company to not only publish their opinion by newspaper but also by TV. Lastly, DTV Act allows foreign fund to be used for instituting press company for globalization which may also allow some foreigner to publish newspaper with wrong or exaggerated information to brain wash some of the Korean citizens. These laws are currently being reviewed but the laws are technically passed right now.
Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist (Friedman 15). “Friendly Business” was a phrase that Myeongbak, Lee had during his presidential campaign. This phrase means that business should be done in friendly situation in order to improve our economy. His promise to improve our economy to top 7 ranking in the world was a lie. Half of his pledges during his campaign were not realized. Instead of Friendly Business, Friendly Press might be a suitable phrase to him. Now it is not about regaining Korean citizen’s economy back, it is about regaining Korean citizen’s freedom, rights, and their democracy back.