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Retweeting DPRK lands activist with suspended sentance
Park Jung-geun, a Seoul-based photographer and free-speech activist, has received a 10-month suspended prison sentence for retweeting North Korean tweets. The case, one of several that has drawn international attention to South Korean Internet censorship, has been going on for the better part of a year and was being closely watched for its interpretation of how South Korea’s…
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DPRK again named “Enemy of Internet”
North Korea remains high on the list of enemies of the Internet, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said Monday in an annual report on Internet censorship. The country was listed alongside Bahrain, Belarus Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam as a home to the world’s most repressive online regimes. The news…
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DPRK again at bottom of press freedom ranking
North Korea has again been ranked the second-worst country in the world for press freedom by Reporters Without Borders. The Paris-based organization has consistently ranked the DPRK at the bottom of the world in terms of press freedom for the last decade. “It is no surprise that the same trio of countries, Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea, absolute dictatorships that…
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South Korea’s National Security Law making headlines
South Korea’s attempts to keep North Korean material from the eyes and ears of its citizens is coming under the global media spotlight as the country launches a new sweep of domestic web sites and discussion forums. Led by U.S. National Public Radio, the country’s arrests of citizens for the seemingly benign posting of North…
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Around 40 questioned over “pro-NK” Internet postings
Authorities in South Korea are questioning around 40 people over Internet postings said to be in support of North Korea, according to several local news reports. (Update: The Dong-a-Ilbo reports around 70 are under criminal probe on suspicion of circulating materials praising North Korea online in violation of the National Security Law.) The material was posted…
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Seoul eyes harsher crackdown on “pro-NK” websites
South Korean prosecutors are launching a crackdown on websites and users judged to be posting “pro-North Korean” material, according to several local press reports. The action comes as regulators judge the amount of such material available to South Korean citizens has “mushroomed to a risky level,” according to prosecutors quoted by Yonhap News said. North Korea’s…
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South Korea’s online blocking sharply rose in 2010
The number of requests by South Korean police for the deletion of Internet content alleged to be pro-North Korean has soared in the past two years, according to a report in the Dong-A Ilbo. Police submitted 80,449 requests to the Korea Communications Standards Commission for the removal of online postings in 2010. That compares to…
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Koryo Tours hits out at South Korean web block
Koryo Tours, the Beijing-based travel agent that specializes in tours of North Korea, says South Korea has “over reacted” in blocking its website since the beginning of this year. The websites koryotours.com and koryogroup.com have been unavailable from South Korean Internet connections since January 26 this year, apparently a casualty of South Korea’s campaign to…
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Internet, mobile phones eyed for Mt. Kumgang
North Korea plans to allow Internet access and the use of mobile phones by visitors to the Mount Kumgang tourism zone. Visitors are typically relieved of their mobile phones when entering North Korea and public Internet access is not available inside the country. But the country is establishing a special tourism zone around Mount Kumgang,…
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North last, South falling in press freedom
North Korea remains the country with the least press freedom in the world, according to the 2011 Press Freedom index from Washington, D.C., based Freedom House. The news isn’t a surprise to anyone that follows North Korea closely. There is a complete lack of independent media, official media is highly censored, and the government actively…
