[Editorial] Minerva arrest masks government weakness

Posted on : 2009-01-12 12:16 KST Modified on : 2009-01-12 12:16 KST

Korea has made itself an international joke, thanks to the way the prosecution filed for an arrest warrant on the Internet commentator Minerva, a certain Mr. Park, without getting its facts straight, and because a court gave them the warrant saying the case “is a serious matter for having influenced the foreign currency market and the country’s international credit rating.” This is the same as the legal authorities lynching the democracy the Korean people have defended for decades with their blood and sweat. Seeing how the foreign media are using phrasing like “a retrogression of democracy” and talking about “serious doubts about the freedom of the press,” it is not Park, it is the prosecution, the courts, and the Lee Myung-bak administration that have hurt the country’s international credibility.

You can see how wild is the prosecution’s application of the law in how even government bureaucrats are questioning the charge of “spreading false facts on the Internet?.” In its application for a warrant, the prosecution took issue with something Park posted on July 30 of last year titled “the country’s foreign currency reserves are finally bursting open,” in which he alleged the government was planning to suspend trading of its foreign currency reserves two days later, on Aug. 1, calling that false information. Officials at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, however, did in fact halt some of the exchange of the government’s foreign currency on Aug. 1 and in September stopped completely, so say they wonder why prosecutors call that false information.

The prosecution also refutes Park’s statement of Dec. 29, in which he wrote that the government had sent out an urgent notice ordering a prohibition on the sale of dollars. It is in fact becoming apparent, through various channels, that the government did ask bank industry officials to discourage potential demand for dollars. So it is the prosecution that is spreading false facts.

The prosecution and the courts, then, need to answer as to why they have gone to such an extent to arrest Park. Ever since the Lee administration saw the rapid spread over the Internet of angry opinion about the U.S. beef situation last spring, it has been in search of ways to control the spread of public opinion, with the adoption of a “cyber insult law,” among other things. Another plain example would be how it went to great excess to try to pass legislation amending media laws in ways that would seriously risk of infringing upon the freedom of the press, even though it quickly ran into national resistance. What is this latest move, other than a threat to the Korean public aimed at quieting voices that are critical of the administration and carried out by law enforcement authorities, who have lowered themselves to doing the administration’s dirty work?

The administration is only going to hurt itself with all of this. Even a mere child could tell you the Minerva phenomenon grew out of the loss of public confidence in the government’s economic authorities. The Korean people will not look the other way if the administration refuses to reflect on its ways and tries to gag opposing opinion.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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