Korean Job Discussion Forums

napoleon8 · Joined: 18 May 2003

Is anyone in Korea talking about the death of actress Choi Jin-sil (최진실)? I'm not currently in Korea, so I don't know how much press the event received. I noticed the government is trying to crack down now on Internet postings.

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

My impression is that, right now, it's being discussed as the most prominent of a string of suicides, that also included Choi Jin Sil' friend with whom she had financial dealings, a just-out-of-the-closet gay celebrity, and a transgendered individual.

I don't trust the ruling party's motivations in pushing forth this legislation. Even if there were no ulterior motive(and I'm pretty sure there is), I don't see why any sort of censorship(apart from maybe libel laws) is needed to protect the feelings of celebrities. People become movie stars and pop singers because they WANT to be famous and talked about. But when some of the talk turns out to be something other than the showers of adulation they were hoping for, they can't handle it and kill themselves. How is this a concern of the government?

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

Another thing to think about...

This is a country where more than a few respectable businesses have connections to gangsters. Remember that incident last year where some kindergarten forced a little girl to stand out in the freezing cold, and someone on Dave's took action by photographing it and sending it to some netizens, who proceeded to give the kindy owners the humiliation they so richly deserved? Would the netizens have been as likely to co-operate if they knew that the owners of the kindergarten would be able to find out their names?

(And no, I'm not saying that that particular school had connections to gangsters. Just that enough businesses do have such connections to make criticism of a particular business a risky prospect, if the critics are required to give their names.)