Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Economic Blogger Who Angered Seoul Is Acquitted

~~ Korea is not the USA. Not all "democracies" have true Free Speech.
Most do not compared to the Good ol' U.S.A.

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http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=356879&f=20
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Economic Blogger Who Angered Seoul Is Acquitted

Associated Press

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: April 21, 2009

SEOUL - An economic commentator on the Internet who criticized and angered the South Korean government but commanded a huge following was freed from jail Monday after a court acquitted him of charges of using the Web to maliciously spread false information.

The arrest of Park Dae-sung in January and his trial on charges of spreading false data in public with a harmful intent - a crime punishable by as much as five years in prison - prompted debate about how much freedom of expression should be tolerated in cyberspace in this extensively wired country.

Mr. Park, an unemployed 31-year-old, gained an almost prophet-like status among many South Koreans after he correctly predicted the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, the crash of the South Korean currency - the won - and the effects on South Korea of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=356879&f=20
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company