Korean Progressive Network 'Jinbonet'

We from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, Sweden, the U.K., the United States and Korea participanted the Asia Internet Rights Conference on November 8-10, and discussed the issues and the challenges of promoting and protecting internet rights in our respective countries. We hereby believe the importance of the internet rights for Asia people and the capacity of Asian people’s solidarity, despite the diversity of experiences shared by each participant.

■ 아시아 인터넷권리 국제회의 참석자들은 11월 11일 11시에 명동성당에서
기자회견을 갖고 아래와 같은 선언문을 발표하였습니다.

[한글 번역문]

민주주의와 자유에 대한 추구는 인터넷에서도 계속되어야 한다
– 2001년 아시아 인터넷권리 국제회의 참석자 선언 –

1.
방글라데시, 캄보디아, 홍콩, 인도, 인도네시아, 일본, 말레이시아, 몽골,
네팔, 필리핀, 스리랑카, 타이, 호주, 영국, 스웨덴, 미국, 한국 등에서 2001년
8일부터 10일까지 개최된 아시아 인터넷권리 국제회의에 참석한 우리는 각국의
인터넷 권리의 현황과 이를 증진하기 위한 과제를 논의하였다. 우리는 아시아
각국이 처해 있는 상황의 차이에도 불구하고 이 회의를 통해 인터넷 권리의
가치와 아시아 민중의 연대 가능성을 확인할 수 있었다.

우리는 발표와 토론을 통해서 세계화가 아시아 민중들의 삶을 피폐하게 만들고
있음을 확인하였다. 아시아 민중들은 서로 협력하여 이 거대한 공격을 극복해
나가야 할

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

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.

Four outside experts gathered together on August 1 to review the negative impacts of the controversial human genome project. The Center for Democracy in Science and Technology at the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) held a hearing on the expected social and ethical problems of the use of genetic information.

On March 4, 2000, the Jinbo Network Center(Korean Progressive Network) has requested that the judgement of the patent on the ‘Remote Education via Internet’ of Samsung Electronics Co. Limited be invalidated.

the verdict of the Seoul District Court to cancel POSCO’s application for an injunction against the Anti-POSCO Website is like a welcome rain during a dry season for the Information & Communication movement.

The extremely polarized debate on the framework of the Bioethics bill is heated up again between civil groups’ alliance and other major forces including National Assembly members as the Korean Bioethics Advisory Commission unveiled the framework of the Bioethics bill which is scheduled to be handed over to Ministry of Science and Technology in this month.

Recently, the Korean government tried to censor Internet content by legislating an act similar to the United States Communication Decency Act (CDA) passed in 1996. It is very similar in that the government and Internet Service Providers (ISP) can officially control Internet content.

As the Human Genome Project has almost been completed, the Council for Democracy in Science & Technology (CDST), a action body of PSPD, petitioned Korean government to enact a law for personal genetic code protection on June 7, 2001 with concerns about the possibility of persons being discriminated against on the basis of genes.

APC supports the actions by the progressive movements in Korea in opposing these new government measures. We want to encourage our member organisations to lend their support in whatever way they feel able. Various options are listed below.

On August .29, the office of Jinbo(Progressive) Network was very noisy. The National Police Agency’s cyber crime bureau asked for the IP addresses of users of Jinbo Network, bringing out a seizure and search warrant . Against it, the group insisted that they don’t have the IP addresses because they take a serious view of personal privacy.

In Korea, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is currently attempting to regulate cyberspace. These attempts, in part, respond to the real needs of people and society in general, yet they are also closely related to seeking the self-interests of the ministry itself.

The Website of the Korean Ministry of Information & Communication was down on August 26 for 10 hours because many Korean Netizens over loaded the website by posting protest messages on the board and reloading repeatedly the page to voice their opposition to the proposed legislation of the Ministry. This type of protest is called a “Virtual Sit-in.” It is a legitimate form of demonstration. During the protest, some tempered netizens made and used some Javascript files.

A new Internet era has just dawned in South Korea. According to a recent report, Internet users in Korea have reached 16 million, which means most Korean people have access to the internet.

We solemnly warn the Korean Ministry of Information & Communication(MIC) of the absurd intrusion of ‘Legislation for Communication Decency’ and also warn Munhwa Broad Casting of(MBC) the danger of one-sided reporting about the incident that MIC’s web service was downed for 10 hours on August 26th (from 12 to 22 oclock). They Calls it “Hackers’ Attach.”

Recently, privacy issues have become very popular in Korea. In March, Privacy Network launched. About 10 progressive groups, including Jinbonet, participated in this Network. They have held several meetings to discuss the important privacy problems in Korea. The list of Privacy issues includes:

진보네트워크센터는 2000년 7월 18일
APC, JCA-Net 주최 [반도청 공개 세미나] 참석하여 발표했습니다.
아래는 이에 대한 APC의 기사입니다.

http://www.apc.org/english/rights/fulltext.shtml?sh_itm=926cc8dad60b2230dece0fcf2585bb89

Japanese Civil Society resists Challenges to Communications Privacy

TOKYO, Japan — Over 100,000 people signed the latest petition for the repeal of the Japanese Wiretapping Law passed in 1999. The petition was submitted to the Diet on May 24.

The petition committee, which includes JCA-NET, the NaST, and various hum