Post by Sunday at midnight.
[1]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Update on Venezuela Collective Action and Media: Chavez connects to Twitter
Twitter is an international media less under control of his opposition connected with Venezuela's 2004 coup; at least he hopes so--it's a U.S. firm after all and U.S. state 'fingerprints' were all over the Venezuelan coup.
It is interesting that other heads of state have taken up Twittering to legitimate their movement or collective action against media pronouncements involved in countermovements or against media that ignore them entirely.
Now in Venezuela, it is hard to have the surreal situation in the film we watched--a situation where even the President of a country could be cut off from the world or even his own nation...by a mere revolt involving just a handful of people including media organizations that lied Chavez resigned voluntarily and that Venezuela was normal (instead of experiencing a very bloody military coup against him that attacked the Presidential Palace and threatened to bomb it).
Perhaps all countries presidents and any major contentious politicians should have a twitter page as 'protection', just to be on the safe against a media barrage of other social movements framing them in their own way.
--------------------------
Chavez Seeks to Join Obama, Castro in Adding Twitter to His Media Arsenal
By Daniel Cancel - Apr 26, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who already writes a weekly newspaper column, created a radio program and speaks for as many as seven hours every Sunday, plans to add a Twitter Inc. account to his media arsenal.
“Comandante Chavez is going to open his Twitter account soon to wage the battle online,” Diosdado Cabello, head of the country’s telecommunications regulator, said today on state television. “I’m sure he’ll break records for numbers of followers.”
Chavez will join world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama (3.8 million followers), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (3,547 followers) and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (88,978 followers) in reaching out to supporters and opponents alike via the social networking tool that limits users to 140 characters per post.
[In 2004, it would have been enough for Chavez to 'tweet': "I did not resign. We have a military coup involving all TV/radio media organizations. Tell the world." Twitter was started in 2006.]
Chavez, a former paratrooper who wants to convert Venezuela into a socialist state, says his government is waging a media war against conservative news organizations that vilify his presidency and follow orders from the U.S. to overthrow his administration. Chavez was praised last year by his mentor Fidel Castro, who has a Twitter site organized by newspaper Cubadebate.cu, for spending 1,536 hours over 10 years speaking during his “Alo Presidente” show.
‘Revolutionary Idea’
“The case of Hugo Chavez is exceptional in the history of politics,” Castro wrote in a note published last year on the Cubadebate.com website. “Others have gained fame through the written press, radio and television, but never has a revolutionary idea made use of a communications media with such efficiency.”
The announcement comes after Venezuela’s opposition said Chavez, 55, was trying to block social networking sites like Facebook Inc. and Twitter last month after he called for an investigation into a local news site for publishing false information about the death of Cabello, who is also Public Works and Housing Minister.
Chavez rejected the accusations and said that he would soon be setting up his own website to publish news and participate in debates.
“I’m going to have my online trench from the palace to wage the battle,” he said on March 21. “I’ll provide information and even respond to my enemies.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net.
---
http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-26/chavez-seeks-to-join-obama-castro-in-adding-twitter-to-his-media-arsenal.html
[2]
1. Mark Whitaker
2. On Wednesday, we continued our examination of explaining why some social movements seem 'immune' to heavy repression. Across many cases, Zald and others (myself in lecture) argue that it is important to look at religious movements as innately forms very suitable for social movement mobilization. We used as cases Nicaragua's Christian/Marxist/Nationalist 'church of the poor' movement under the Sandinista Revolution in 1979. It toppled the Somoza dictatorship.
Some additional films on religion and social movements:
Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches.
A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Martin Luther King, Jr. on War, video excerpts, 3 min.
video, last speeches of 1967
other excerpts, 5 min, still pictures, audio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k5dptjc3LY
This link starts a series of linked films, moving from one to another. It starts with the speech the day before he was assassinated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8&feature=PlayList&p=B1FFBA6D82A3794C&playnext_from=PL&index=1&playnext=2
Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam" 22 min, Excerpts of a Sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U&feature=related
[King assassinated in April 4 1968]
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Week 7: Post your Blog Entries as Comments to my Main Post Each Week
Post by Sunday at midnight.
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Beyond Satire? Cracking down on Non-Candidates/Citizens Attempting to "Influence Elections" Now in South Korea: Who is allowed to "Influence Elections" at all, anymore? No one? SK's Repression keeps raising costs for all collective action--even for democratic participation; Maybe South Korea is heading back for dictatorship--which still would fail to stop collective action it would just change it character once more ; and a second article about repressing Twitter, another 'arena' of the Internet unmentioned in our previous articles on media arenas and collective action
3. SK law is being stretched to demote collective action favoring democratic election appeals in elections. Aren't the election laws are exclusively for candidates' being regulated, this is the first time I have seen them applied to non-candidates! Rarely do you see states worldwide encouraging voting, because voting tends to make a state more representative, and most state elites dislike that. (The U.S. has some really repressive voting day rules to minimize turnout still.)
Currently, the crackdown moves into social movement strategies that attempt even democratic voting redress of grievances. However, SK represses this as well.
I predict this will only lead toward more people taking more violent actions and more instability, instead of people sitting through Lee's presidency quietly. Lee's regime is demoting all forms of democratic redress of grievances. His regime is labeling social movements as part of 'electioneering' (which before was a charge against candidates only!) and Korea has some very severe laws on election management. Perhaps President Lee is working on Korean unification by making South Korea a one-party totalitarian police state run by fear as well. Though I sarcastically digress...
We will talk about different classification attempts of repression later. (Particularly the article "Tanks, Tear Gas, and Taxes"--It's a digital article, look it up if you are interested in what she is saying.)
That author describes contexts where most repression is far from overt and visible. Sometimes the attempt to simply apply the law--in areas where it seldom applied before, in a "conceptual stretching"--is a way for state elites to expand repression legally against collective action.
The danger of course is that state repression seldom creates a repressed society entirely (as we have seen in some articles so far).
The Lee government could make everything even more unstable and encourage collective action, since grievances against him are at record levels according to his own polls.
This idea of 'repression of democracy' backfired in 1960. That was the 'social movement frame' that encouraged more collective action as legitimate instead of demoted it. The South Korean government fell in 1960 after a particularly open vote fraud rigged election: repression "didn't work" and instead led toward massive protests and the end of the Rhee regime. I'll talk about this later.
I'm curious about the outcome of regional elections and what will happen if they come up so "pro-Lee" that no one believes it.
---------------------
Police continue crackdowns on regional election events
Both the police and election commissions have been accused of violating freedom of expression
Photo: Members of a civic organization wear baseball umpire and football referee uniforms during a protest to ask for fair management from the Central Election Management Committee, April 19. [to get in the media this way, we talked about the powerless and how sometimes framing symbols in a novel way is a major cultural power of change.]
Amid the campaign season for the June 2 regional elections, regional election commissions and police have prohibited or forcibly dispersed events related to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and green free school lunches, major issues in this election season, as violations of the Public Official Election Act.
Some are charging that the election commissions and police are applying excessively strict standards and curtailing the freedom of expression.
On April 15, election commissions for Seoul’s 25 districts sent notices stating that green free school lunch signature campaigns taking place in the 25 districts are potentially in violation of election law. In response, campaigns taking place in the districts of Jungnang and Gwangjin were canceled entirely.
This is not the first time election commissions have given notice that the free lunches for elementary and middle school students campaign is potentially in violation of election law. Previously, the Goyang City Election Commission gave notice to civic organizations banning a signature campaign calling for green free school lunches, including the Goyang Citizens’ Council, while the Seoul City Election Commission gave a similar notice to the Korean Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo), which is also participating in the free school lunches campaign. On both occasions, the commissions charged that the campaigns violated election law.
In addition to the free school lunches issue, election commissions have also been imposing sanctions in relation to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. On April 3, the Gyeonggi Province Election Commission launched a crackdown on Four Major Rivers photo exhibitions by Buddhist monk and environmental activist Jayul, held at three locations in downtown Suwon, claiming that these are in violation of election law. And on March 28, the National Election Commission (NEC) gave notice that radio spots recruiting members for the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) and the Four Major Rivers Watchdog group is potentially in violation of election law.
[What public, peaceful strategies of collective action or democratic election pressure from voters are left?]
Meanwhile, police have been forcibly dispersing or arresting participants in assemblies, press conferences and one-person protests in connection with the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and free school lunches issues, categorizing them as “illegal demonstrations.” On April 19, police forcibly dispersed or restricted one-person protests by members of the 2010 Voter Hope Alliance, held at locations throughout Seoul to call on voters to vote against the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and in favor of free school lunches.
[Even the collective action strategy of press conferences are repressed.]
On April 5, the police notified Citizens’ Alliance for Environmentally Friendly Free School Meals standing committee chairwoman Bae Ok-byeong that she must report to police on charges of violating on the Law on Assembly and Demonstration in connection with a press conference. That same day, police confiscated a ribbon bearing the name of President Lee Myung-bak and even broke a flowerpot, saying, “The press conference itself is not illegal, but the situation in which comedy is put on mentioning a specific politician’s name is illegal.”
[Comedy is illegal even? In other words...?--using comedy to shame the government and make them look silly? It is unclear to me what symbolic collective action the article is describing.]
Bae said, “All you have to do is have an event in connection with green free school lunches and the election commission will block it as a violation of election law, while the police will block it as a violation of the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.” Bae continued, “The green school lunch movement has been going on since the early 2000s.” She added, “I cannot understand why police officers are saying it is now illegal.”
[Because it's winning massive support according to polls I have seen, so repression is occurring to intimidate people from public support. Perhaps the election may be rigged as a last ditch effort: things like this happen in countries all the time.]
KFEM Secretary General Kim Jong-nam said, “It is a violation of fairness that they do not say a word about publicity or advertisements in favor of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, but only block the opposition.” Kim also said, “It seems as if they are afraid that opinions critical of the government are becoming organized and widespread, so they are shutting them off at the source.”
[The Lee Government knows from its own polls that only 20% of Koreans trust their current National Assembly. They aren't in power with a huge mandate for such changes in any of their policies.]
In response, NEC information officer Kim Dae-nyeon said, “These decisions are not the application of arbitrary standards toward specific events by specific groups, but determinations made according to election law.” Kim added, “Insofar as election law exists so that elections can take place fairly, we hope that civic groups will respect enforcement according to election law.”
[Of course the goverment is consolidating its opposition unfortunately into one very effective strategy, perhaps one of the few left for Koreans: intentionally breaking the law and going to jail in huge numbers. This was done in the Black Civil Rights movement. This was done in the move for independence in India from the British Empire as well. This was to shame both governments for their repressive actions, and to generate forms of media symbolism difficult to delegitimate, creating much "sympathy adherents."]
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) public relations officer Kim Jae-won said, “This is not a case of all events being branded illegal.” [Well, which ones are still legal? Stop feigning ignorance.] Kim continued, “It only refers to instances that violate the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.” Kim also said the actions were “taking place according to procedure based on the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.”
Ahn Jin-geol, director of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) Public Welfare Hope Team, said that election commissions have recently been visiting or contacting groups like his own and the School Meal Network and persuading or ordering them not to hold events. “Because of this, freedom of expression on social issues is being continuously curtailed, including the cancellation of actual events.”
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/416883.html
1. Mark Whitaker
2. The Attempt to Close the Internet "Media Arena": The War on Twitter by the Lee Government Regarding Elections, whether you are a candidate or just a citizen
3. Look back at the article on 'media arenas.' The internet was left out. Interesting on how social movements are left with using this media arena when all others are very tightly closed to political discussion or open debate in South Korea.
------------------
04-21-2010 19:23
Twitter [Or Citizens Using Twitter?] Under Tighter Scrutiny Before Election
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
Prosecutors are investigating a number of suspected unlawful [sic?] political activities carried out through Twitter, Web portals and other online-based media ahead of the June 2 local elections.
After a meeting of 58 high-ranking prosecutors, [just one more than the 57 'high prosecutors accused of high corruption for over 30 years continuously^^] presided over by Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu, Wednesday, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office announced that it will mobilize all possible resources to crack down on illegal election activities on the Internet, stressing it will impose steep financial penalties against gains earned through illegal election campaigns.
[Court battles over refusing to pay fines may be a form of collective action soon. It was used in a very famous battle between food activists and the McDonald's corporation in the U.K.]
It also said prosecutors will make every effort to prevent unlawful rallies and politically-motivated industrial strikes that are aimed to influence election outcomes, adding it will prosecute those responsible for such unlawful activities.
“Elections should take place in a fair and neutral manner. [Without anyone's input at all?^^] Prosecutors should not take political considerations into account when investigating illicit campaign activities. Additionally, investigations should be conducted in a way not to influence political outcomes,” Kim said. [Which, er, I fail to see occurring in SK.]
The prosecutors’ office has setup a “cyber crime monitoring team,” consisting of 36 investigators, to sniff out those who engage in unauthorized election campaigns on the Internet.
With a growing number of Koreans getting information online, politicians are increasingly turning to cyberspace to get their message out and rally support. However, law enforcement authorities are concerned that Twitter and other online tools may become a hotbed for illegal election campaigns.
In February, the National Election Commission (NEC) said it would prevent politicians and their supporters from using Twitter for promotional activities ahead of the elections.
But with the rising cases of possible illegal election activities in cyberspace as elections draw near, investigators have begun looking more closely into messages posted on online media sites and are ready to prosecute those responsible for spreading false rumors about certain candidates. [If you think any government is a fountain of truth automatically without public input, it is the height of gullibility.]
Prosecutors said a 51-year CEO of a shipping firm, only identified by his surname Lee, has been under questioning for posting several messages on Twitter, falsely claiming that a candidate he supports tops many public opinion polls. Twitter, which combines the strengths of blogs and instant messaging services, enables users to send and receive short messages on personal computers and mobile devices.
Additionally, a 35-year old CEO of an advertizing agency, identified by his last name Kim, is also under investigation for stealing IDs from a number of Internet users to post promotional messages on portal sites, on behalf of candidates running for ward offices.
With 40 days left to go before the election, prosecutors said a total of 616 people have been booked and 23 have been taken into custody, lower than corresponding figures from four years ago. But the cases of illicit campaigns increased at a faster pace in April.
With many public officials running for mayor, governors and council members, 231 civil servants, including 61 incumbent heads of municipal governments, were booked. Of the 616, 330 were booked for giving and receiving money, while 43 were charged with the illegal promotion of certain candidates.
On Monday, Yeoju County head, Lee Ki-su was arrested for providing 200 million won in bribes to a Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker in an attempt to secure a party nomination in the upcoming election.
[I note the Korea Times entirely ignores police crackdown of citizens, thereby keeping its readers in the dark about what is going on--which of course is one of the purposes of a private media, to keep people in the dark. Read the argument in the 'media arenas' article. If it's unreported, it 'fails to happen' as something that could generate concern/sympathy or other mobilization for or against collective action.]
leehs@koreatimes.co.kr
---
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/04/117_64611.html
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Beyond Satire? Cracking down on Non-Candidates/Citizens Attempting to "Influence Elections" Now in South Korea: Who is allowed to "Influence Elections" at all, anymore? No one? SK's Repression keeps raising costs for all collective action--even for democratic participation; Maybe South Korea is heading back for dictatorship--which still would fail to stop collective action it would just change it character once more ; and a second article about repressing Twitter, another 'arena' of the Internet unmentioned in our previous articles on media arenas and collective action
3. SK law is being stretched to demote collective action favoring democratic election appeals in elections. Aren't the election laws are exclusively for candidates' being regulated, this is the first time I have seen them applied to non-candidates! Rarely do you see states worldwide encouraging voting, because voting tends to make a state more representative, and most state elites dislike that. (The U.S. has some really repressive voting day rules to minimize turnout still.)
Currently, the crackdown moves into social movement strategies that attempt even democratic voting redress of grievances. However, SK represses this as well.
I predict this will only lead toward more people taking more violent actions and more instability, instead of people sitting through Lee's presidency quietly. Lee's regime is demoting all forms of democratic redress of grievances. His regime is labeling social movements as part of 'electioneering' (which before was a charge against candidates only!) and Korea has some very severe laws on election management. Perhaps President Lee is working on Korean unification by making South Korea a one-party totalitarian police state run by fear as well. Though I sarcastically digress...
We will talk about different classification attempts of repression later. (Particularly the article "Tanks, Tear Gas, and Taxes"--It's a digital article, look it up if you are interested in what she is saying.)
That author describes contexts where most repression is far from overt and visible. Sometimes the attempt to simply apply the law--in areas where it seldom applied before, in a "conceptual stretching"--is a way for state elites to expand repression legally against collective action.
The danger of course is that state repression seldom creates a repressed society entirely (as we have seen in some articles so far).
The Lee government could make everything even more unstable and encourage collective action, since grievances against him are at record levels according to his own polls.
This idea of 'repression of democracy' backfired in 1960. That was the 'social movement frame' that encouraged more collective action as legitimate instead of demoted it. The South Korean government fell in 1960 after a particularly open vote fraud rigged election: repression "didn't work" and instead led toward massive protests and the end of the Rhee regime. I'll talk about this later.
I'm curious about the outcome of regional elections and what will happen if they come up so "pro-Lee" that no one believes it.
---------------------
Police continue crackdowns on regional election events
Both the police and election commissions have been accused of violating freedom of expression
Photo: Members of a civic organization wear baseball umpire and football referee uniforms during a protest to ask for fair management from the Central Election Management Committee, April 19. [to get in the media this way, we talked about the powerless and how sometimes framing symbols in a novel way is a major cultural power of change.]
Amid the campaign season for the June 2 regional elections, regional election commissions and police have prohibited or forcibly dispersed events related to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and green free school lunches, major issues in this election season, as violations of the Public Official Election Act.
Some are charging that the election commissions and police are applying excessively strict standards and curtailing the freedom of expression.
On April 15, election commissions for Seoul’s 25 districts sent notices stating that green free school lunch signature campaigns taking place in the 25 districts are potentially in violation of election law. In response, campaigns taking place in the districts of Jungnang and Gwangjin were canceled entirely.
This is not the first time election commissions have given notice that the free lunches for elementary and middle school students campaign is potentially in violation of election law. Previously, the Goyang City Election Commission gave notice to civic organizations banning a signature campaign calling for green free school lunches, including the Goyang Citizens’ Council, while the Seoul City Election Commission gave a similar notice to the Korean Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo), which is also participating in the free school lunches campaign. On both occasions, the commissions charged that the campaigns violated election law.
In addition to the free school lunches issue, election commissions have also been imposing sanctions in relation to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. On April 3, the Gyeonggi Province Election Commission launched a crackdown on Four Major Rivers photo exhibitions by Buddhist monk and environmental activist Jayul, held at three locations in downtown Suwon, claiming that these are in violation of election law. And on March 28, the National Election Commission (NEC) gave notice that radio spots recruiting members for the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) and the Four Major Rivers Watchdog group is potentially in violation of election law.
[What public, peaceful strategies of collective action or democratic election pressure from voters are left?]
Meanwhile, police have been forcibly dispersing or arresting participants in assemblies, press conferences and one-person protests in connection with the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and free school lunches issues, categorizing them as “illegal demonstrations.” On April 19, police forcibly dispersed or restricted one-person protests by members of the 2010 Voter Hope Alliance, held at locations throughout Seoul to call on voters to vote against the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and in favor of free school lunches.
[Even the collective action strategy of press conferences are repressed.]
On April 5, the police notified Citizens’ Alliance for Environmentally Friendly Free School Meals standing committee chairwoman Bae Ok-byeong that she must report to police on charges of violating on the Law on Assembly and Demonstration in connection with a press conference. That same day, police confiscated a ribbon bearing the name of President Lee Myung-bak and even broke a flowerpot, saying, “The press conference itself is not illegal, but the situation in which comedy is put on mentioning a specific politician’s name is illegal.”
[Comedy is illegal even? In other words...?--using comedy to shame the government and make them look silly? It is unclear to me what symbolic collective action the article is describing.]
Bae said, “All you have to do is have an event in connection with green free school lunches and the election commission will block it as a violation of election law, while the police will block it as a violation of the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.” Bae continued, “The green school lunch movement has been going on since the early 2000s.” She added, “I cannot understand why police officers are saying it is now illegal.”
[Because it's winning massive support according to polls I have seen, so repression is occurring to intimidate people from public support. Perhaps the election may be rigged as a last ditch effort: things like this happen in countries all the time.]
KFEM Secretary General Kim Jong-nam said, “It is a violation of fairness that they do not say a word about publicity or advertisements in favor of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, but only block the opposition.” Kim also said, “It seems as if they are afraid that opinions critical of the government are becoming organized and widespread, so they are shutting them off at the source.”
[The Lee Government knows from its own polls that only 20% of Koreans trust their current National Assembly. They aren't in power with a huge mandate for such changes in any of their policies.]
In response, NEC information officer Kim Dae-nyeon said, “These decisions are not the application of arbitrary standards toward specific events by specific groups, but determinations made according to election law.” Kim added, “Insofar as election law exists so that elections can take place fairly, we hope that civic groups will respect enforcement according to election law.”
[Of course the goverment is consolidating its opposition unfortunately into one very effective strategy, perhaps one of the few left for Koreans: intentionally breaking the law and going to jail in huge numbers. This was done in the Black Civil Rights movement. This was done in the move for independence in India from the British Empire as well. This was to shame both governments for their repressive actions, and to generate forms of media symbolism difficult to delegitimate, creating much "sympathy adherents."]
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) public relations officer Kim Jae-won said, “This is not a case of all events being branded illegal.” [Well, which ones are still legal? Stop feigning ignorance.] Kim continued, “It only refers to instances that violate the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.” Kim also said the actions were “taking place according to procedure based on the Law on Assembly and Demonstration.”
Ahn Jin-geol, director of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) Public Welfare Hope Team, said that election commissions have recently been visiting or contacting groups like his own and the School Meal Network and persuading or ordering them not to hold events. “Because of this, freedom of expression on social issues is being continuously curtailed, including the cancellation of actual events.”
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
---
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/416883.html
1. Mark Whitaker
2. The Attempt to Close the Internet "Media Arena": The War on Twitter by the Lee Government Regarding Elections, whether you are a candidate or just a citizen
3. Look back at the article on 'media arenas.' The internet was left out. Interesting on how social movements are left with using this media arena when all others are very tightly closed to political discussion or open debate in South Korea.
------------------
04-21-2010 19:23
Twitter [Or Citizens Using Twitter?] Under Tighter Scrutiny Before Election
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
Prosecutors are investigating a number of suspected unlawful [sic?] political activities carried out through Twitter, Web portals and other online-based media ahead of the June 2 local elections.
After a meeting of 58 high-ranking prosecutors, [just one more than the 57 'high prosecutors accused of high corruption for over 30 years continuously^^] presided over by Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu, Wednesday, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office announced that it will mobilize all possible resources to crack down on illegal election activities on the Internet, stressing it will impose steep financial penalties against gains earned through illegal election campaigns.
[Court battles over refusing to pay fines may be a form of collective action soon. It was used in a very famous battle between food activists and the McDonald's corporation in the U.K.]
It also said prosecutors will make every effort to prevent unlawful rallies and politically-motivated industrial strikes that are aimed to influence election outcomes, adding it will prosecute those responsible for such unlawful activities.
“Elections should take place in a fair and neutral manner. [Without anyone's input at all?^^] Prosecutors should not take political considerations into account when investigating illicit campaign activities. Additionally, investigations should be conducted in a way not to influence political outcomes,” Kim said. [Which, er, I fail to see occurring in SK.]
The prosecutors’ office has setup a “cyber crime monitoring team,” consisting of 36 investigators, to sniff out those who engage in unauthorized election campaigns on the Internet.
With a growing number of Koreans getting information online, politicians are increasingly turning to cyberspace to get their message out and rally support. However, law enforcement authorities are concerned that Twitter and other online tools may become a hotbed for illegal election campaigns.
In February, the National Election Commission (NEC) said it would prevent politicians and their supporters from using Twitter for promotional activities ahead of the elections.
But with the rising cases of possible illegal election activities in cyberspace as elections draw near, investigators have begun looking more closely into messages posted on online media sites and are ready to prosecute those responsible for spreading false rumors about certain candidates. [If you think any government is a fountain of truth automatically without public input, it is the height of gullibility.]
Prosecutors said a 51-year CEO of a shipping firm, only identified by his surname Lee, has been under questioning for posting several messages on Twitter, falsely claiming that a candidate he supports tops many public opinion polls. Twitter, which combines the strengths of blogs and instant messaging services, enables users to send and receive short messages on personal computers and mobile devices.
Additionally, a 35-year old CEO of an advertizing agency, identified by his last name Kim, is also under investigation for stealing IDs from a number of Internet users to post promotional messages on portal sites, on behalf of candidates running for ward offices.
With 40 days left to go before the election, prosecutors said a total of 616 people have been booked and 23 have been taken into custody, lower than corresponding figures from four years ago. But the cases of illicit campaigns increased at a faster pace in April.
With many public officials running for mayor, governors and council members, 231 civil servants, including 61 incumbent heads of municipal governments, were booked. Of the 616, 330 were booked for giving and receiving money, while 43 were charged with the illegal promotion of certain candidates.
On Monday, Yeoju County head, Lee Ki-su was arrested for providing 200 million won in bribes to a Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker in an attempt to secure a party nomination in the upcoming election.
[I note the Korea Times entirely ignores police crackdown of citizens, thereby keeping its readers in the dark about what is going on--which of course is one of the purposes of a private media, to keep people in the dark. Read the argument in the 'media arenas' article. If it's unreported, it 'fails to happen' as something that could generate concern/sympathy or other mobilization for or against collective action.]
leehs@koreatimes.co.kr
---
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/04/117_64611.html
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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