hankyoreh

Norma Kang Muico, Amnesty International’s Korea researcher, said Thursday that democracy in South Korea is facing serious challenges.

Muico, who spoke with The Hankyoreh by telephone Thursday, said that international human rights organization has been closely monitoring the human rights situation in South Korea this year, adding, “We are extremely concerned that the human rights situation in South Korea has deteriorated since last year.”

She also said that “Most of all, infringement of the right to assembly and freedom of expression is very serious.”

Muico described her experience of going to a demonstration in Myeong-dong last May, when she said she saw “hundreds of police blocking citizens from holding demonstrations.” She said the police action was the kind of thing that makes people afraid to participate in public assemblies.

She urged the government not to be afraid of public criticsism and encouraged it to communicate with them.

Before the interview, Muico gave a presentation on Korea’s human rights situation at Chatham House, a well-known think tank in London, in which she said that human rights in the country, especially the public’s right to assemble freely and press freedoms had deteriorated.

In her presentation she discussed the police’s arrest of four journalists who had protested against the government’s appointment of Gu Bon-hong as the president of cable news network YTN last year. Gu is known to be a close confident of President Lee Myung-bak and his appointment was largely seen as a government attempt to gain tighter control of the South Korean media.

She also talked about the prosecution’s indictment of five people who were involved in the production of an MBC program about mad cow disease that aired last year. The producers were accused of defaming former Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun and inciting demonstrations against the government’s decision to resume imports of U.S. beef. The prosecution’s investigation and indictment of the producers have been widely criticized for being excessive and for infringing on press freedoms.

“The freedom of the press in Korea is now facing a challenge,” Muico said.

Muico was in South Korea in April to investigate the YTN case.

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