Choi Jin-sil’s suicide sparks Net crackdown
p2pnet news view | P2P:- “I’m so scared,” South Korean actress Choi Jin-sil is reported by the Korea Times as saying before she committed suicide.
“I feel like dying if the situation continues. Will people trust me if I die? My name is ‘Choi Jin-sil’ (Jin-sil means truth) but people call me ‘Choi Hypocrisy.’ Isn’t it sad? I’m sorry for my children, but it may be better to become a mom whose truth is revealed after death than a mom at whom people point fingers.”
She was bound up in the death of actor Ahn Jae-hwan, “who killed himself in September allegedly after failing to pay back debts to loan sharks,” said the story. “It was rumored that Choi lent him billions of won.”
Her death fueled a debate over how to tackle what are possibly the two biggest social problems in South Korea: suicide and so-called cyber-terrorism, said the Los Angeles Times.
Now South Korean police have rounded up more than 2,000 people, “for spreading malicious rumours on the Internet during a month-long crackdown sparked by an actress’s suicide,” says Agence France-Presse.
“The National Police Agency said 11 people have been formally arrested and detained for serious legal breaches and that prosecutors would be asked to charge another 2,019 with various offences,”" it says.
There was a, “social consensus that those who spread false rumours online be sternly punished,” Oh Se-Chan, a chief investigator at the agency’s cyber-terror prevention centre, told AFP.
“The crackdown will continue in order to secure a cleaner and sounder environment on the Internet.”
Choi’s death followed last year’s suicide deaths of two South Korean celebrities who came under cyber-attack on their own websites, says AFP, adding:
“In response, the government in Seoul passed a law to curb the country’s notorious cyber-bullying by preventing Internet users from hiding behind fake IDs when they post entries at major portals and news websites.”
Korea Times – Actress Choi’s Last Conversation Disclosed, October 23, 2008
committed suicide – Choi Jin-sil suicide sparks ‘cyber-insult’ debate, October 28, 2008|
Los Angeles Times – Suicide of South Korean actress fuels Internet debate, October 26, 2008|
Agence France-Presse – SKorea cracks down on malicious Internet use, November 9, 2008
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November 18th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Cyber-bullying has become increasingly harmful to not only the careers but the personal lives of celebrities, and it is important, I feel, that measures are being taken on an official level to prevent what happened to Choi Jin-Sil to happen again. Korean society provides a unique case in comparison to other national entertainment industries because of the specific emphasis on reputation, dignity, and success that has become the root of Korean culture. As such, unlike other nations’ celebrities, who are capable of ignoring bad press or unflattering rumors and disassociate their professional lives with their private ones, Korea’s entertainment industry, which is significantly smaller than that of say the United States, leaves entertainers vulnerable to much more concentrated public scrutiny. A ruined reputation, a disgraced family name, are enough to push a shamed Korean citizen to the brink of devastation and self-destruction, but with the additional pressure and attention, celebrities have no one to turn to and nowhere to hide. On one hand, it can perceived as cowardly to resort to suicide rather than face one’s problems head-on, but it is also true that cyber-bullying is in itself a personification of cowardice and unjustified terrorism. I wonder if the increasing public aggression and antagonism of South Korean celebrities is unique to only the South Korean entertainment industry or just the consequences of such cyber terrorism? If the excessive Internet abuse of entertainers applies only to South Korea, why is the Korean public so disapproving and aggressive? The accessibility to actors and celebrities gives the incorrect illusion that their lives are up for public consumption and judgement, but I hope that more will understand that entertainers are simply people who entertain.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:45 am
i hope miss Choi Jin Sil still live ….. i am sad …