andrew garton on Tue, 15 Jan 2002 21:01:16 +0100 (CET) |
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<nettime> Korea : gay contents and internet rating system |
Heady days ahead with Korea's recently implemented Internet content rating system... -ag. This is a forwarded message: From: della <della@www.jinbo.net> To: asia-ir@list.jinbo.net Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2002, 2:07:42 PM Subject: [asia-ir] Korea : gay contents and internet rating system ===8<==============Original message text=============== Dear Friends, Happy new year~! I want to shortly brief you the current situation of Korean internet censorship especially regarding the internet rating system. The 60 day relay hunger strikes was finished on December 20th, 2001. On that day we had a small festival with songs and performances. You can see this in Real streaming file : http://real.jinbo.net:7073/ramgen/cham/video/new-program/antirating.rm And last 9th, we had a press conference for the first lawsuit against govenment internet rating system with the gay and lesbian content. Here're some news clipping in English. Regards, YKChang ---------- Forwarded message ---------- <BBC> Wednesday, 9 January, 2002, 19:14 GMT Korean gays sue over website access Gay activists in South Korea have filed a lawsuit against government restrictions on access to the country's first website for lesbians and gay men. An alliance of 15 groups say the blocks on the website violate the constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, speech and of the press. A spokesman for the movement Im Tae-Hun said the government had no right to determine people's sexual orientation. The authorities blocked access to the website ezone from schools, libraries, state offices and cybercafes, after a government committee designated it as detrimental to young people's morals. However, internet users at home are still able to enter the site. <CNN> Lawsuit filed over gay Korean Web site January 12, 2002 Posted: 5:32 AM EST (1032 GMT) SEOUL, South Korea -- Homosexual rights advocates in South Korea have filed a lawsuit against the government for blocking access to the nations first Web site for lesbians and gays. Ruling that the Web site, www.exzone.com, was "harmful to young people", Korean Information and Communications Ethics Committee ordered the site to block its access to teenage viewers. Users must now type in their social security numbers so access is denied to people under 19. However, South Korea's Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Federation, together with more than a dozen other rights groups says that the restrictions discriminated against homosexuals and were a violation of the right to freedom of speech. "This clearly shows that the South Korean government refuses to recognize homosexuals," said Lim Tae-hoon, a spokesman for the federation told the Associated Press. "All people, including teenagers, have the right to choose their sexual identities and be open about it." In response to the restrictions, the Web site has removed its original contents and replaced them with statements from gay rights groups protesting the government's actions. Althgough homosexuality is not outlawed in South Korea, discussing it is something of a taboo. The gay rights movment has also been virtually inexistent in the East Asian nation until recent years. <Washington Post> Korean Gay Activists Challenge Web Site Ban by Adam Creed SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, Jan 10, 2002 (Newsbytes via COMTEX) -- South Korean homosexual rights campaigners have today reportedly taken their government to court over a ban on one of the country's first Web sites for gays and lesbians. According to the Lesbian and Gay Alliance Against Discrimination in Korea, access to gay and lesbian Web sites has been blocked ever since the government adopted an Internet content rating system last year and classified gay and lesbian Web sites as "harmful media." South Korea's Ministry of Information and Communications implemented a Web content rating system in July of last year, coupled with national Web site blocks for those sites that are effectively classified off the Korean Internet. The Korean Information and Communications Ethics Committee (ICEC) was charged with classifying content. In April 2001, according to the Lesbian and Gay Alliance, it classified homosexuality under the category of "obscenity and perversion" in its "Criteria for Indecent Internet Sites." The committee is supposed to be independent. But the activists allege the decision can be traced to the Korean government's Youth Protection Act of 1997, which classifies descriptions of "homosexual love" as "harmful to youth." That decision has blocked access to many gay and lesbian Web sites in Korea, the alliance claims. Activists are calling for: "an end to this system of compulsory site blocking by the Korean government; a revision of measures in the Youth Protection Law that designate homosexuality a harmful influence to youth; and the adoption of provisions barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Korea." The alliance is only the latest group to criticize South Korea's Internet censorship laws, with organizations claiming they infringe on Koreans' right to freedom of expression. The Net content rating system is based on PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) technology. Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication insists that the Internet laws aim to protect youths from harmful Internet content. The Lesbian & Gay Alliance Against Discrimination in Korea is on the Web at http://outpridekorea.com/lgaad/ Asia Internet Rights Conference http://asia-ir.jinbo.net -------------------------------------------------------------------- [Korean Progressive Network 'Jinbonet'] http://www.jinbo.net -------------------------------------------------------------------- ===8<===========End of original message text=========== # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net