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Mar. 29  2024
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We congratulate the constitutional court for recently ruling the Electronic Communication Business law to be unconsitutional !!

On June 27, the South Korean consitutional court ruled that Article 53 of the Electronic Communication Business law, as well as Article 16 of an enforcement ordinance ot the law, otherwise knows as "regulation of dangerous communication," were unconstitutional for violating freedom of expression.

Source  :  Jinbo in Progress #4 [Jinbonet Newsletter]

On June 27, the South Korean consitutional court ruled that Article 53 of the Electronic Communication Business law, as well as Article 16 of an enforcement ordinance ot the law, otherwise knows as "regulation of dangerous communication," were unconstitutional for violating freedom of expression.

JCAGIC welcomes the decision of the court. This ruling is especially significant because it comes exactly one year after the controversial "Internet Contents Rating System" was established by the Information Communication Ethnics Committee (ICEC).

At a public hearing held in 2000, the ICEC admitted that Articles 53 and 16 could be considered unconstitutional, but it went ahead anyway and brazenly applied these articles to the internet, resulting in the disappearance of many bulletin boards and websites. Thousands of user IDs, accounts, and homepages were terminated. A few famous cases were "Inoschool," a student-run website critical of the education system; the personal homepage of Kim In-gue, an art teacher who posted naked photos of him and his wife; "ivancity," a gay and lesbian community site; and "no-serviam," an anti-military service website started by a group of anarchists. These and other websites were shutdown without exception after the ICEC labeled them "improper." Some websites were fortunate enough to be reopened on another server, but most website administrators were afraid that the sites would soon be closed down again. So most websites committed "cyber suicide."

With the Electronic Communication Business law, Articles 53 and the enforcement ordinace Articles 16, the Ministry of Information and Communication has been able to delete or heavily restrict disclosure of "improper" postings on electronic bulletin boards that have been alleged to disrupt public order or threaten "social morals." "As the standards for restriction are very abstract and vague, the law violates the people's freedom of expression," the constitutional court ruled. These "abstract and vague" laws allowed the government to censor the internet for "improper" material, undermining the constitutional right to freedom of expression. The spirit of the constitution was endangered by these unjust laws.

In light of this ruling, the existence of the ICEC should also be reexamined. Just like the Electronic Communication Business law, the ICEC was established as a censorship mechanism to control "dangerous communication." Therefore, the structure and activities of the ICEC must be critically reevaluated, and the immediate end to ICEC's unconsitutional behavior must begin now.

We emphasize that the constitutional court's recent judgement should be reflected in all laws related to internet content rating. In the case of film, the Performance Ethnics Committee has been changed to the Korean Council for Performance and Art after pre-censorship was ruled to be unconstitutional. However, the government's ability to censor was revived through "grading reservation." The same reasoning applied to the Electronic Communication Business law needs to be felt in all areas where censorship still threatents freedom of expression.

Therefore, the Internet Contents Rating System is an issue that weighs heavily on the minds of Korean ICT activists. The Communication Order law, the legal basis of the Internet Contents Rating System, became effective on July 1, 2001. At the time, the government insisted that the ICEC was a civil organization, and the rating system was not censorship but a "service" for the people. Part of this "service" was the distribution of government-designed filtering software to all internet cafes.

The Internet Contents Rating System needs to be urgently addressed. This point cannot be stressed enough. Through the ICEC, government censorship is still alive and kicking. But backed by the positive ruling of the constitutional court, we hope the government will stop infringing upon the people's freedom of expression.

The Joint Committee Against Government Internet Censorship welcomes the judgement of the constitutional court, and the struggle against government censorship of the internet will continue to the very end.

June 26, 2002.
The Joint Committee Against Government Internet Censorship
2002 / -0 / 8-
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