In the wake of the Ministry of Information and Communication's announcement to implement a controversial internet content rating system, activists from several civic organizations responded with a sit-in hunger strike at Myongdong Cathedral, a traditional site of protest in Korea. Opponents of the rating system argue that it will seriously undermine freedom of expression on the internet in particular and civil liberties and social democracy in general.

Social groups in Korea assume that this is not a proper way of protection of minors but just a very dangerous censorship.

Upon the continuous hunger strike for establishing democracy and human rights in the information society, By abolishing the Internet Content Rating System, and Demanding the resignation of the Minister of Information and communication.

In July 2000, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) of Korea pronounced an act called 'Communication Order Act', which has introduced the PICS(Platform for Internet Content Selection) under the broad framework of Internet Content Rating System. This act manifestly shows the government's intent to control the world of WWW: the authorities concerned does not try to make the on-line world the more creative and critical space but they are attempting to tame the netizens in terms of their own rules and perspectives.

Under the slogan, "No to the Internet Contents Rating System! We demand the resignation of the Secretary of the Ministry of Information & Communication," a coalition of activists, students, teachers, journalists, artists, and union leaders staged a sixty-day hunger strike that ended on December 20th.

The MIC will thoroughly search for violent and obscene contents in major portal sites along with any kind of unsound information roaming in cyber space and work on settling the rating system.

April 22 is the Day of Information Communication in South Korea. We should prosecute government censorship because this system represses people's internet rights and freedom of speech.