I’m still trying to comprehend this decision:
A Seoul court on Thursday fined a college student 1.5 million won for producing and spreading parodies through the Internet that aimed to defame certain candidates ahead of the April 15 general elections.
It is the first time in South Korea that a citizen has been punished for producing parody works on the Internet.
The 26-year-old student, identified by the surname Shin, was accused of creating and posting some 20 parody photos on the Internet that were considered unfair for some candidates from the Grand National Party.
“Shin deserves punishment because he tried to influence the elections through his parody works, although he contended he wanted to draw public participation into politics,” the Seoul Central District Court said in the ruling. Shin said he would appeal.
The ruling came amid a deepening controversy over the digitally-altered images of President Roh Moo-hyun and Grand National Party (GNP) leader Park Geun-hye that satirized their political ambitions and policies in a rude and obscene manner. Politicians, who often become the subject of political parodies, wanted to draw a clear line between the freedom of expression and the parodied works that they view go too far.
“Everyone has the right to express their opinions by creating works, including parody works, but Shin’s work passed a limit and tried to influence politics with the works for a certain party,” the ruling said.
Read the rest on your own.
10 Comments
So– have his pics been banned? If not, I’d love to see what he did.
Kevin
“Tried to influence the election through his parody works”
I keep rereading this trying to figure out why this is a bad thing. Isn’t this what citizens do in a democracy? The last bit of the ruling that says that everyone is entitled to free expression but Shin shouldn’t be allowed to comment on politics…sounds like bullshit to me. If you can’t try to persuade others of your opinion, then how can there be free expression?
Except for shouting fire in theatres and threatening violence, there is free speach or there is not.
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Trying to influence an election? Heck. That is called electioneering here.
Somewhere in the distance Dear Leader can be heard saying “Yes my children, now you see the light…dissent is bad! Muahahahaha!”
I don’t understand how it can be illegal to try to persuade public opinion toward one political party or the other in Korea. This is something I have to find out I guess. This makes no sense. Why even have different parties if you get in trouble for choosing sides?
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I can’t wait to read the discussion on this.