Bail refused for S Korea seer Minerva
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- In December last year, “a message appeared on an online bulletin board owned by Daum, the most popular web host in a country, South Korea, with a huge internet culture,” said Britain’s The Economist, going on »»»
Written by someone called ‘Minerva’, it predicted the imminent collapse of Lehman Brothers, a now-defunct investment bank.
Wild speculation is normally disregarded, but when it proved to be right just five days later, a prophet was born. Word raced through the ‘netizen’ community, and when Minerva went on to predict that the Korean won would fall against the dollar by around 50 won a day in the first half of the week of October 6th, his followers began to watch the currency markets in anticipation. The won did indeed fall by about that much over the next three days.
Then, Minerva (Greek goddess of wisdom) said, “I will shut my mouth because the nation ordered me to remain silent,” reported the Korea Times, going on:
“He has become one of the most popular commentators with articles harshly criticizing the Lee Myung-bak administration’s economic policies.
“In a contributed article to the monthly magazine Shindonga’s December edition published Monday, he predicted that the Korean economy would collapse and the benchmark Seoul index might fall to as low as 500 points. It closed at 1,116 points, Wednesday.”
However, the powers that be in South Korea reckoned he’d gone too far when he said the government, “had banned major financial institutions and trade businesses from purchasing U.S. dollars in an apparent move to shore up the local currency, calling it inaccurate information that disrupted the foreign exchange market,” says the Associated Press.
Minerva, “identified in court documents as Park Dae-sung, was arrested, igniting a debate about freedom of speech in cyberspace in South Korea, “one of the world’s most wired and tech-savvy nations,” says the story, continuing:
“In some 100 postings on bulletin boards on a popular Internet portal last year, “Minerva” denounced the government’s handling of the economy and made predictions, largely negative, for the future. His writings were sprinkled with jargon that suggested he was an economic expert, and his identity was a hot topic of discussion in South Korea.
“Prosecutors say the suspect is actually an unemployed Seoul resident who studied economics on his own after graduating from a vocational high school and junior college with a major in information and communication.”
Minerva was denied bail, his lawyer, says AP.
Stay tuned.
The Economist – An online Nostradamus, and the search for his identity, December 11, 2008
Korea Times – ‘Minerva’ – Doomsayer or Oracle?, December 19, 2008
Associated Press – Seoul court refuses to release blogger on bail, January 16, 2009
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January 21st, 2009 at 2:39 pm
In “civilized” world, this is called “freedom of speech” and “democracy” (c) Russia
January 21st, 2009 at 2:45 pm
yes I recall reading this a month or so ago. Everything the guy said online ended up being true. The Korean press picked it up afterwards.
Then the hunt was on to find him and silence him.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Amnesty international should be made aware of this guy, if they aren’t already.