hankyoreh

Immediately after the announcement last week of the Cheonan investigation findings, the Lee Myung-bak administration held an emergency meeting and announced that it would be cracking down on any and all acts of spreading falsehoods about the cause of the sinking.

Yesterday, the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) announced that it was carrying out a focused investigation of Internet users spreading false information through Internet bulletin boards and blogs. KNPA stated that the targets for investigation would be malicious conspiracy theories, but if events unfold according to police investigation methods, all critical and analytical posts about the cause of the Cheonan’s sinking or the government’s response could become targets for the crackdown. It is abundantly clear that legitimate questions and differing opinions are being curtailed.

Gagging the South Korean public has already been taking place openly. The Ministry of National Defense and the military have pressed defamation charges against former Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) National Security Strategy Secretary Park Sun-won. Park said, “The wake and communications records from the Cheonan that the South Korean government did not disclose are probably in the hands of the U.S.,” and joint civilian-military fact-finding team member Shin Sang-chul claimed that the Cheonan ran aground.

Prosecutors have handed all of these cases to their public security division. Both of the men in question are national security experts, and the remarks in question were statements of expert opinion. If even these statements are to be viewed as subject to a public security investigation, then the message is clear: all speech differing from the government line is to be shut off at the source.

Even more unsightly is what appears to be incitement by certain conservative news outlets. Following a recent talk by former Korea University Professor Kim Yong-ok, who raised questions about the Cheonan investigation findings, a few conservative newspapers went into group attack mode, decrying Kim’s words as “feeding conspiracy theories” and “irresponsible remarks,” telling him to keep quiet. They also appear to be painting even the reasonable questions of opposition party members and Netizens as attempts to deny the government’s credibility and tarnish its image. It calls to mind a witch-hunt in which the goal is to eliminate all dissenting opinions.

If they refuse to tolerate expressions of personal opinion and try to turn even reasonable questions into the target of efforts to stamp out “falsehoods,” then this is no different from authoritarianism. This is not a problem that cannot be resolved simply by silencing dissenting voices so that you no longer hear them. How is it possible to gain support for North Korea policy and win over the international community if the people of South Korea are unable to readily agree? Rather than browbeating people and asking, “Why don’t you believe?” the government should be offering proper answers to the questions raised. Distrust can only go away if there is a maximally transparent disclosure of data and continued efforts at logical explanation based on scientific examination results. Most of all, this petty business of physically silencing opinions differing from the government line needs to stop. The Republic of Korea is a democratic republic.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]