Lawyers, Prosecutors on Tightrope over Online Commentator 'Minerva'

 

Prosecutors said Monday that false information from online economic commentator "Minerva'' forced the government to spend $2 billion to protect the local currency late last year, but lawyers will file a petition to ask the court whether the arrest of the online commentator was proper or not.

 

The opposition Democratic Party (DP) has formed a team of lawyers for Park Dae-seong, 30, who claims to be Minerva. Rep. Lee Jong-kul said he would ask the court to review the propriety of Park's arrest.

 

The team said the Telecommunications Law promulgated in 1985 does not have any clause governing the legality of online comments, adding that at the time, the Internet was not taken into consideration.

 

Lee also said phrases such as "working against the public interest'' or "making false allegations'' were too vague and needed to be specifically defined.

 

A prosecutor responded: "On Dec. 29, when the online economic pundit wrote articles about the government ordering major banks not to buy dollars, demand shot up suddenly and the government had to spend $2 billion to stabilize the market.''

 

He said that Park's allegations, posted late in the trading session on Dec. 29, ignited a dollar-buying spree until the next day and forced the government to spend the $2 billion.

 

The prosecution is consulting with Ministry of Finance officials to verify the negative impact Park's writings had on the financial market.

 

Other negative opinions about the economy also hurt the nation's international credit standing, it said.

 

An ongoing dispute is still raging, as it has yet to be confirmed whether Park really is Minerva.

 

In the monthly magazine Shindonga last December, a commentator using the name Minerva allegedly forecast the fall of the stock market index to 500 points and an economic crash in March.

 

However, Park said that he neither contacted the magazine nor contributed an article it. The magazine will publish its comments on the case in its February issue.

 

In the meantime, a survey showed a majority of opinion leaders supported the Internet guru's arrest for spreading "groundless rumors.''

 

A survey conducted by the Institute of Global Management, an education institute for CEOs, Sunday, saw 99 percent of 640 corporate leaders, business management professors, lawyers and reporters participated saying they knew of Minerva, with 58 percent supporting the ongoing legal action against him.

 

CEOs marked the highest percentage of support for his arrest at 62 percent.

 

Park whose educational background was a stint with a community college, was identified as Minerva and arrested last week.

 

The move triggered fierce debate over Korea's standards of freedom of expression, with his supporters claiming that he was a mere blogger expressing his opinions online and that his arrest would jeopardize the country's Internet culture. His detractors, including the government, said the arrest was part of efforts to bring accountability to online culture.

 

Source: Korea Times