A news report suggests that the man claiming to be the Internet pundit “Minerva,” who was arrested on charges of committing the crime of “spreading false facts,” is not in fact the “real Minerva.” According to the latest edition of the monthly Shindonga, published by the DongA Ilbo Co., released yesterday, “Minerva” is “a group and not an individual” and, furthermore, the man named Mr. Park, whom prosecutors have arrested, is not even a member of the group in question. The Shindonga also ran an interview with someone who claimed he has been writing commentary on the portal Daum’s discussion site Agora using the name “Minerva.”

The situation is confusing and dizzying. The prosecution’s assertions and this monthly publication’s report are entirely different. If the report is wrong, it will be held suspect for having been a fabrication, and if the prosecution’s claims differ from fact, the prosecution will find itself facing accusations that it fabricated its investigation for political motives. If the prosecution arrested the wrong guy, then the courts, too, are deserving of ridicule for siding with prosecutors in granting an arrest warrant. It might end up being the news media and it might end up being the judicial system, but someone is about to find themselves peeling their public confidence level off of the floor.

It looks like, at the very least, the prosecution is going to have to deal with the criticism that it conducted a sloppy investigation. The prosecution says that beyond the two Internet posts, one titled “Emergency Government Order Number 1,” that appeared on Dec. 29, it did little to confirm anything else, and it is Park who is claiming he was behind the predictions about Lehman Brothers and the subprime fiasco that established the Minerva name. The prosecution’s main evidence is the IP address used to make the posts, but that is said to be something that can be manipulated, and the prosecution has not produced anything that backs up that evidence. Since one of the reasons an arrest warrant was issued for Park was “the influence Minerva has on society,” if it was someone else who was behind the writings that use the name Minerva, then the prosecution lacks a reason to have investigated Park while holding him under arrest.

The question that needs to be asked here is whether this kind of investigation should happen or not in the first place. It was unreasonable from the start to think the debate and claims being exchanged freely and at great speed over the unlimited space that is the Internet should be the object of control and punishment. Even before the Internet, government power was not going to be able to suppress the voices of the people indefinitely. Now that information and debate travels in real time through a variety of media, attempting to do the same is not only impossible, it is also dangerous because it can hurt basic rights like that of the freedom of expression and the spirit of the Constitution. Still, the prosecution hurriedly went ahead with its investigation and a court readily gave prosecutors a permit to conduct a witch hunt.

And what happened as a result of that? It’s like the legend of Hong Gil-dong - when they caught eight manifestations of him he turned into straw. It’s the natural conclusion of a wild attempt to lock up public opinion.

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