The South Korean left’s war on conservative media continues, but credit to the New York Times for taking notice of what is going on in South Korea:
Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon of South Korea in Seoul in August. He said misinformation about his visit to Ho Chi Minh’s compound in Vietnam had been “vicious.”
South Korea announced a sweeping crackdown on “fake news” on Tuesday, calling it “a destroyer of democracy.” Conservative critics of the government, however, cried foul, accusing it of trying to impede freedom of speech.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said that fake news had spread so widely in South Korea that it was stymying not only citizens’ privacy but also the country’s national security and foreign policies, including its relations with North Korea.
Mr. Lee did not offer examples. But he was furious last week after he visited Vietnam for the state funeral for its president, Tran Dai Quang. While in Hanoi, he visited the stilt house of Ho Chi Minh and wrote in the visitors’ book at the compound that he felt “humble” before the “great” Vietnamese leader. South Korea fought against his Communist forces alongside the Americans during the Vietnam War.
So of course the Prime Minister has declared war on fake news and wants a new law to regulate the news:
Mr. Lee encouraged government agencies to report fake news to the law enforcement authorities for investigation. He also called for a new law regulating such information, which some lawmakers in his Democratic Party had already been advocating.
Opposition lawmakers denounced the government’s move as an attempt to silence criticism, especially YouTube videos used by conservative critics to attack the progressive government of President Moon Jae-in, whom they often call a North Korean stooge. Progressives have long criticized those channels as a main source of inaccurate and unfair information.
“They can already punish distribution of false information under the existing laws,” Park Dae-chul, a legislator affiliated with the conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party, said in a statement. “I cannot help suspecting that this is an attempt to crack down on right-wing podcasts. They want to shut down the voices the government doesn’t want to hear.”
ROK Drop readers may recall how the Korean left has already taken over control of most of the mainstream media in the country through union violence and those they don’t control they have threatened with legal action. They have even had conservative journalists arrested for libel.
The Moon administration is taking these actions because they need to change the South Korean public’s opinion of North Korea and Kim Jong-un. Conservative critics who keep bringing up North Korea’s poor human rights record, past atrocities, terrorism, and other inconvenient truths have to be silenced to continue to shape pro-North public messaging.
The Moon administration’s ultimate goal is a confederation with North Korea and he can’t realize that without the support of the South Korean public.
It’s a must read if you really want to know what’s happening with South Korea’s democracy.
AppeasingNorthKorea
5 years ago
It’s gone far enough that the current American government has put a blind eye to South Korea’s violations of democratic rights, imprisoning of the opposition critics, silencing of free press and speech since it’s America’s single lone goal is denuclearization of North Korea.
But if the US doesn’t speak up against the gross violations in South Korea, then it’s no better than the very same government in South Korea who are getting more and more emboldened seeing that there are no international critics to their policies designed to silence the opposition.
The South Korean conservative opposition are getting dismantled, arrested, silenced, and destroyed, and the US is letting that happen. And more and more South Korean conservatives are so disgusted by Trump’s betrayal of them, they’re turning their backs on the US as an untrustable ally. But it’s not too late to turn things around for the US to rally the South Korean opposition.
2ID Doc
5 years ago
Lee Nak-yon is a commie, just like his political daddy Moon Pie. They plan to hand the keys to South Korea over to Kim Fatty the Third who will immediately run the country into a economic ditch and make Made in Korea a laughingstock the world over. There, did I make the South Korean enemies list yet?
setnaffa
5 years ago
Appeasing, you are ignoring the sad fact that a visible majority of Koreans in America think Obama was a great President. And they are not complaining about South Korea’s morphing.
Similarly, the US has no power to change what South Korean voters chose. As I often say, South Koreans are going to receive everything they voted for… Everything… And unfortunately, unless they wake up suddenly, it probably does mean worm-ridden Nork troops riding down their streets in tanks…
It’s up to South Korea to choose their own path. The UN (mostly USFK) onlt has troops in South Korea to prevent an unwanted incursion by the North. There aren’t nearly enough UN troops to stop South Korea from surrendering of their own free will.
Time will tell. We can pray for them to wake up in time.
We need more coverage of Commie Moon’s illegal press suppression on behalf of Kim Fatty III.
Here’s more coverage here, this time from Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-seoul-tacitly-endorses-pyongyangs-brutality-1538433356
It’s a must read if you really want to know what’s happening with South Korea’s democracy.
It’s gone far enough that the current American government has put a blind eye to South Korea’s violations of democratic rights, imprisoning of the opposition critics, silencing of free press and speech since it’s America’s single lone goal is denuclearization of North Korea.
But if the US doesn’t speak up against the gross violations in South Korea, then it’s no better than the very same government in South Korea who are getting more and more emboldened seeing that there are no international critics to their policies designed to silence the opposition.
The South Korean conservative opposition are getting dismantled, arrested, silenced, and destroyed, and the US is letting that happen. And more and more South Korean conservatives are so disgusted by Trump’s betrayal of them, they’re turning their backs on the US as an untrustable ally. But it’s not too late to turn things around for the US to rally the South Korean opposition.
Lee Nak-yon is a commie, just like his political daddy Moon Pie. They plan to hand the keys to South Korea over to Kim Fatty the Third who will immediately run the country into a economic ditch and make Made in Korea a laughingstock the world over. There, did I make the South Korean enemies list yet?
Appeasing, you are ignoring the sad fact that a visible majority of Koreans in America think Obama was a great President. And they are not complaining about South Korea’s morphing.
Similarly, the US has no power to change what South Korean voters chose. As I often say, South Koreans are going to receive everything they voted for… Everything… And unfortunately, unless they wake up suddenly, it probably does mean worm-ridden Nork troops riding down their streets in tanks…
It’s up to South Korea to choose their own path. The UN (mostly USFK) onlt has troops in South Korea to prevent an unwanted incursion by the North. There aren’t nearly enough UN troops to stop South Korea from surrendering of their own free will.
Time will tell. We can pray for them to wake up in time.