S Korea’s Minerva sues magazine
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Park Dae-sung is suing a monthly magazine, claiming it published false information about him.
As Minerva, he was coming out with amazingly accurate economic forecasts on an online bulletin board owned by Daum and was arrested as a result, “igniting a debate about freedom of speech in cyberspace in South Korea,” said the Associated Press.
“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,” it said. “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.”
Now Minerva’s lawyers are suing the Sindonga, a publication of the DongA Ilbo daily, with the Press Arbitration Commission, says the Korea Times, going on to quote Park’s lawyers as stating:
“Every piece of evidence confirmed by the prosecution supports there is no other Minerva but Park. But the magazine has groundlessly claimed he’s a phony, significantly defaming the 31-year-old.”
In its January edition, “the magazine carried an interview with an individual identified only as ‘K’ who claimed Minerva was a shared ID among seven financial experts and the arrested blogger was not involved,” says the story.
” ‘The groundless report made people suspect that Park was crazy and a swindler. He is afraid that he will not be able to lead a normal life,’ said lawyer Park Chan-jong. ‘It’s an undeniable duty for the media company to deliver accurate information, so the magazine should take responsibility for the false report’.”
Sindonga has promised a follow-up report for February but, “The lawyers plan to file a libel suit if the arbitration is unsatisfactory,” adds the Korea Times.
amazingly accurate economic forecasts – Bail refused for S Korea seer Minerva, January 21, 2009
Associated Press – Seoul court refuses to release blogger on bail, January 16, 2009
Korea Times – ‘Minerva’ Files Complaint for Alleged Defamation, January 30, 2009
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
January 31st, 2009 at 10:56 pm
This is our future in the USA