Freedom of Expression in South Korea

Media freedom and responsibility in South Korea: The perceptions of journalists and politicians during the Roh Moo-hyun presidency

“…However although the political influence from the military government has declined, pressure arising from funding mechanisms and ownership control was increasingly acknowledged as a major threat to freedom of speech and media pluralism in South Korea, a view particular articulated by interviewees supporting the progressive party. While the new media were mostly positively evaluated by our interviewees in 2008, critics have pointed out that the Lee Myung-bak government imposed censorship on the internet media by filing defamation lawsuits against journalists, requiring real-name registration, exercising content regulation in the name of national security (Haggard and You, 2015;You, 2015).…”

“…They also discussed their views of other aspects of democratic politics, including free elections, human and civil rights, economic growth and cultural diversity. Although critics argue that the election system was later distorted by the Lee Myung-bak government (Haggard and You, 2015;Jonsson, 2014), This journalist's final sentence is revealing. As we shall see presently, freedom of expression and its relationship to media responsibility emerged at this time as a contested arena among politicians and journalists.…”

Erosion or decay? Conceptualizing causes and mechanisms of democratic regression

“…the gradual conversion of existing laws for illiberal purposes. Stephen Haggard and Jong-Sung You 76 argue for example that the South Korean democratic regression lies in the conjunction of several legal tactics by the government. In this context, they refer to the abuse of criminal defamation laws, to abuse of election laws, and the abuse of the National Security Law.…”

“…78 Under the presidency of Lee, it is shown that the number of indictments for defamation doubled, often involving massive attacks on the freedom of expression. 79 Also, electoral laws were bended, ranging from illegal use of money and gifts to illegal propaganda, and violations of neutrality orders. 80 While the National Security Law that entails the prohibition of so-called "anti-government organizations" has been in great decline during the liberal governments between 1998 and 2007, it saw a sharp increase when Lee entered office.…”

Examination of Restriction of Free Speech under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Reference to Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, Pakistan

“…As the offence of terrorism has been defined very narrowly and clear definitions of terrorism is required in order to avoid confusion. Because this narrow definition is not only fatal fir the freedom of speech but also it does not justify the necessity requirement (Haggard & You, 2015). Likewise in case of hate speech it is necessary that hate speech should be defined clearly and there should be a defined list which encapsulates acts and omissions fall under hate speech.…”