[Editorial] Comic Punishment of Political Satire : English Editorials : Internet Hankyoreh

A university student has been indicted for creating digital images of Choe Byung Yul, who has since stepped down as chairman of the Grand National Party (GNP), and Chough Soon Hyung, chairman of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), then placing the results on the internet. In one, Choe and Chough have become homeless people sitting on the ground, having lost in the National Assembly election. In another, Assembly members who voted in favor of the impeachment bill are lined up in a parallel line, a play on Choe's given name, Byung Yul, which is pronounced the same as a double "row" or "line" in Korean, and portraying them as a political element that is "high cost, low efficiency." That's all he did, and we think there's nothing to get suddenly serious about, as the images are light attacks at reality and any member of the general public who views them are at worst going to be moved at the wit and originality.

It's utterly shocking that the police could go against all expectations and apply a yardstick so serious as the clause forbidding the spreading of "false facts," part of current election laws, to internet cartoons, which live on the free flow of wit, humor, and information. Netizens are calling the authorities' move a "Third World comedy episode," and as an act of civil disobedience are spreading the images all over the internet, further demonstrating what's wrong with the matter.

These days, democratic countries are working hard for wide-ranging rights for their peoples. A typical example would be how by expanding the range of political expression such as the freedom of the press and publishing and thereby guaranteeing political satire in literature and art, in which the imagination is exhibited, life is pumped into dry sphere of political debate. Korea first saw the serious emergence of political satirical drama in the course of the 1987 presidential campaign, when it was positively seen as an aid to the free expression of the sentiments of the people.

You wonder how many people will look at the suggestion that a single line is better than parallel lines and thought "that's the spreading of illegal facts in order to prevent the election of a certain candidate" instead of "how clever!" Prosecuting someone for something like that is nonsense. A country where you can't criticize elected public servants through parody of political reality is a police state.

The Hankyoreh, 25 March 2004.

[Translations by Seoul Selection. (PMS)]