Korean Progressive Network 'Jinbonet'

[성명서]
일본 정부는 ‘정보사회 세계정상회의 (World Summit on the Information Society)를 위한 아시아 지역회의’에 북한을 초청해야 한다!

2003년 1월 13일부터 15일까지, 일본 동경에서는 ‘정보사회 세계정상회의를 위한 아시아 지역회의’가 개최된다. 이 회의에 일본 정부는 북한을 초청국에서 제외했다고 한다. 우리는 북한에 대한 일본 정부의 부당한 행태에 대해 비판하여, 즉시 북한을 초청할 것을 일본정부에 요구한다.

정보사회 세계정상회의는 2003년 말, UN 주최로 개최되는 정보사회에 대해 논의하는 중요한 자리이다. 정보사회는 경제, 정치, 사회, 교육, 미디어, 인권 및 개발 등 전 세계적으로 우리들의 삶에 많은 변화를 줄 것이다. 따라서, 이 회의는 정부, 기업, NGO들을 포함한 모든 이해당사자들이 어떠한 조건 없이 참여할 수 있는 공간이어야 하며, 이는 이미 UN에 의해 선언된 바 있다. UN은 정보사회 세계정상회의를 소개하는 문서에서 “정보사회세

On August 28th, an open conference on the role of digital libraries was held at the hall of the National Human Rights Commission in Seoul, South Korea

The National Health Insurance System Board held talks on September 6 to try decide the retail price of Gleevec, a cancer drug used for treating leukemia, only to end by delaying the talks even further. One year has passed since the problem of Gleevec first arose.

Korean civil society organizations (CSOs) held an open discussion regarding the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) at 3 p.m., September 25th, at the conference hall of the National Human Rights Commission of South Korea.

Police arrested Kim Kang-pil, a member of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) in South Korea on July 25th. Kim uploaded several materials related to North Korea onto the bulletin board of DLP website. Prosecution claimed his actions violated the National Security Law, Article 7, Clause 1 (an act advantageous to the enemy) and Clause 5 (bringing the materials of profit to the enemy); in this clause enemy means North Korea.

Only by this kind of public support was Novartis able to recollect all invested capital within eight months of global marketing of Gleevec. But now, Novartis has twenty years of intellectual property rights.

On July 9th, the Suwon District Court made preliminary decision against Soribada (http://www.soribada.com), a Peer to Peer (P2P) program for MP3 file sharing, should be suspended. This is the first judgement regarding this type of case since the Korean recording industry accused the Soribada managers of infringement of copyrights last January and the prosecution indicted them last August. Though the final decision for the prosecution indictment has not been decided, we are seriously worried about this judgement.

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.

On May 3rd, prosecutors charged Jeon Ji-Yoon, a Sungkonhoe University student and a member of “Dahamkke,” the Democratic Labor Party’s student committee, for violation of the National Security Law (NSL). According to prosecutors, this violation stemmed from statements made by Jeon on an internet bulletin board. Jeon has been in prison since May 7th.

On May 31st, “Dopehead” and “Bungbung,” managers of the Anti-Military Service Movement website (http://www.non-serviam.org) received an email from the Information & Communication Ethics Committee (ICEC), alerting them that their website was to be shut down for two months.

30 years have passed since the Korean government forced its people to seal all of their fingers on a piece of a card. This usage started in 1968, during the late President Park’s dictatorial regime, when Kim Shin-jo and his armed troops from North Korea infiltrated near the Blue House. It is time, however, such usage be eradicated.

On May 24th, the Korean Progressive Network (Jinbonet), the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU), the Electricity Workers Union, and the Korean Federation of Transportation, Public, & Social Service Workers’ Union prosecuted the power companies because the felt that the companies’ conduct constituted an unfair action which the labor law bans.

Because the rank-and-file was scattered, it was very important to communicate with each other and headquarters. There were websites, cell phones, and many video activists to report their struggle.

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.

Searching for a lost child by using the fingerprints is gaining popularity for its cutting edge idea, reported The Naeway Economic Daily on February 15.

Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) have built database for identifying faces and fingerprints to rear up information security industry.

According to the Electronic Times on March 4th, the US government is now trying to legalize a passport that has biological information to prevent counterfeit passport after the 9-11 terrorist attack, and Korea is also planing to drive such project.

The proposed revision of the copyright law, which is now being discussed in the National Assembly, seriously violates the Constitution by using copyright to protect investments rather than the public good. Moreover, it also aggravates the already precarious situation of “digital libraries” by prohibiting access from outside the library. We strongly insist that the revision should not be passed because it will tremendously damage the public interest.

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.

In June last year, APC received a request from JinboNet, our partner network in Korea, for support and solidarity for a 72 hour “website strike” in protest against the Korean government’s introduction, from July 1st, of a compulsory filtering system for “PC Bangs” (Cybercafes), schools and public libraries. The system blocked access to websites that the Korean government considers to be “harmful to minors.” Websites selected for blocking included mainstream lesbian and gay websites.