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From today's Herald...


Strict rules make election dull on Web



The role of the internet was one of the most notable things about the last presidential election. Many said that had it not been for his active online fan club, President Roh Moo-hyun's surprise victory over conservative candidate Lee Hoi-chang would not have been possible. The U.K.'s Guardian newspaper even called Roh the "world's first internet president."

The internet should have played an even bigger role in this year's election: Korea is one of the world's most wired countries, and user-created content, or UCC as it is colloquially known, is exceedingly popular. But strict election laws and monitoring, coupled with a race clearly dominated by a single candidate, have put a damper on what was expected to be a test of electronic democracy.

Anyone found guilty of insulting a candidate could get three years in prison or a 30 million won ($33,000) fine. This has stymied debates on discussion boards provided by major internet portals, a stark contrast to 2002, when a single comment often led to thousands of follow-up postings.

The situation has also affected UCC sites.

"The National Election Commission's regulations have made UCC a one-way street," said Richard Hwang, marketing director of Pandora TV, Korea's biggest video sharing website. He was referring to the ban on any online content that could be considered libel.

The election watchdog has to date removed over 65,000 posts or video files it has deemed inappropriate, about six times more than in 2002. Over 1,000 cases have also been referred to the police.

Hwang said Pandora had had high hopes of contributing to the political process with UCC, offering personal channels to candidates as early as March. "We thought we could help change the election culture, which has traditionally been dominated by stumping, leaflets and donations. We wanted to create an environment in which every candidate has the same chance to promote themselves since they can only do so much in newspapers and on television."

Pandora had expected both candidates and active netizens to create user-generated videos, but has so far only received content from candidates and their political camps.

Hwang said Pandora has seen an increase in visitors, from about 1.8 million in January to about 2.2 million currently. But only 15 percent have watched the election clips, or about half of the company's initial target. The number of campaign-related UCC submissions currently averages about 150 per day.

The fact, say analysts, is that people are just not willing to brave their chances with the law.

"The election laws have never been stricter. There are around 100 articles describing disciplinary measures for violators. If the regulations were to be interpreted broadly, few would avoid violating one of them," Song Kyong-jae, a research professor at Kyung-hee University, said.

Political watchers believe the situation has worked in favor of frontrunner Lee Myung-bak of the opposition Grand National Party, helping him solidify his lead. But the restrictions have hurt lesser-known candidates, who typically use the internet to reach voters.

Public dissatisfaction has been on the rise following reports of netizens being investigated by the police. A group of citizens have lodged a petition with the Constitutional Court for a revision of the election law, while Pandora is planning to run the some 70 videos the NEC deleted from its site following the election.

"They might as well start censorship," protested 33-year-old Chung Kwang-hyun at a debate in Seoul organized by the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy on Dec. 11.

"One netizen got questioned by police because he posted an article that he had put together from different newspaper reports," Chung said. "Why is it that a newspaper article is okay but patching newspaper articles together leads to police hauling you away?"

Political watchers also believe the lukewarm response of netizens reflects resignation about the presidential election.

"The online response is a reflection of the public sentiment offline. The presidential race this time has been clearly characterized by one strong candidate and two weak candidates and there has been little change in approval ratings over time," Song said. He cited the lack of policy discussions among candidates as another reason for the lack of online enthusiasm.

Political watchers say that regulations governing election laws should be eased up.

"There is a need to loosen regulations since UCC activities are important to creating a democratic political and election culture," said Lee Jae-jin, professor of journalism and mass communications at Hanyang University. "We need to discuss what constitutes constructive (UCC activity)."

Professor Cha Chang-hoon of Pusan University agrees that such strict laws are unnecessary. "The NEC could actually be violating the election law by restricting UCC. Electronic democracy has the merit of increasing public participation, although it runs the risk of slander. But voters are not fools and they should be given the chance to make up their own minds."

Amidst the NEC's tough regulations, some Korean netizens are using overseas sites instead to make themselves heard. Many posts target Lee Myung-bak.

A video clip produced by Lee Myung-bak's rival party has become one of the YouTube hits of the week. In the file, Park Sun-young, a journalist-turned-lawmaker, takes issue with Lee's alleged involvement in a stock manipulation scam. Prosecutors cleared Lee of all charges last week.

Since being posted on Dec. 5, the clip has had over 660,000 hits and has also showed up in a version with English subtitles. Another video clip, in which a pastor urges people to pick Lee Myung-bak, has also had some 75,000 hits.

By Kim Min-hee

([email protected])

[mehmeh]

According to the BBC Global News podcast, all (not just policitcal) internet postings in Korea are monitored these days.

Apparently some singer killed herself because people were making fun of her on her webpage. Since then, Korean web forums require you to use your real name and gov. ID numer to leave a comment. They interviewed a man arrested under this law, it all sounds very Orwellian.

The story was on todays podcast (12/13)...interesting stuff.