Minerva - Korea's Dr. Doom internet blogger arrested

Seoul Tries To Make Web Prophet Log Off

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2009/...t-face-markets-cx_twdd_0112autofacescan1.html

Park Dae-sung, the offending blogger, is not an economist by training but a lay commentator. Based on what he read in mail-order books and on financial Web sites, he posted entries online under the pen name of "Minerva," saying that the won would weaken to 1,400 against the dollar and that Lehman Brothers Holdings (other-otc: LEHMQ - news - people ) would collapse shortly before it in fact did. He also stridently criticized the government's handling of the economy.

The Seoul Central District Court issued Park's arrest warrant Saturday on charges of spreading false information on the Internet with the intent to harm the public interest. Judge Kim Yong-sang stated, "there is a need to arrest him, given the severity of the matter, as the case seriously affected the foreign exchange market and the nation's sovereign ratings."

"I posted my writing in a bid to help small business operators and ordinary citizens who sustained damage following the Asian financial crisis and who are alienated from government policies,'' Park told the press after the court hearing.



Wow obviously Bernie Madeoff isn't dangerous compared to a guy like this.

So much for freedom of expression.

Re: Minerva - Korea's Dr.Doom internet blogger arrested

18 month sentence sought for South Korean blogger: http://www.cnbc.com/id/30188978/for/

Re: Minerva - Korea's Dr.Doom internet blogger arrested

I thought the internet was the only place for freedom of speech?

sheesh i hope that law doesnt enter here.

Here's a couple of links that may be of interest

Google tests if there is a business model for free expression

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Foremski/?p=452

Korean news

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2009/04/133_42877.html

Re: Minerva - Korea's Dr.Doom internet blogger arrested

noirua said:

18 month sentence sought for South Korean blogger: http://www.cnbc.com/id/30188978/for/

Click to expand...

"Prosecutors said Park is actually an unemployed Seoul resident who studied economics on his own after graduating from a vocational high school and junior college with a major in information and communication."

I bet the powers that be didn't like the fact that a market self-educated unemployed blogger called the demise of Lehman Brothers either.

Not guilty

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/business/global/21blogger.html?ref=global-home

SEOUL ”” A South Korean online economic commentator who criticized and angered the government but commanded a huge following was freed from jail Monday after a court acquitted him of charges of maliciously spreading false information on the Internet.

The arrest of Park Dae-sung in January and his ensuing 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 of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis on South Korea.

In some of the hundreds of online commentaries he posted under his pen name, Minerva, Mr. Park also unleashed scathing attacks on the government’s response to the global financial crisis. Some of his postings contained factual errors. The government accused him of undermining the financial markets.

In acquitting Mr. Park, Yoo Young-hyeon, a judge at the Seoul Central District Court, ruled Monday that there was no proof that Mr. Park had “had the intention to undermine public interest.€