PSPD in English Newsletter 2020-08-05   1730

PSPD English Newsletter, July/August 2020

This month at PSPD

 

 July / August 2020

 

 

Reporting to the Fair Trade Commission – Fallacy and Exaggeration of 5G advertisement  

 

월간참여사회 2020년 7-8월 합본호 (통권 277호)

 

‘Transcendence,’ and ‘Superpower’ – these are the keywords of advertisement presented by Korean telecommunications companies introducing 5G service since April 2019. However, the consumers have been complaining of malfunctioning 5G.  May 27, according to an announcement of a market research institute in England, Korean Telecommunications companies – SKT, KT, and LGU+ (3 Tele companies) have only an average 224Mbps of download speed which is just 44% of 506Mbps from Verizon Communications in the U.S. In addition, an average 5G connection time of 3 Tele companies is 3.4 hours. Despite higher charges to the consumers for 5G service, 5G provides slower speed and a lack of connection time.  

 

In order to download a 2GB movie just in 0.8 seconds like what the advertisements show, 28GHz base stations are theoretically required. But in fact, the base stations installed by the 3 Tele companies have a capacity of 3.5GHz spectrum range, and the telephones that telecommunications companies have sold are only able to receive 3.5GHz signal. These base stations are even lacking, and therefore, the 5G service range does not cover the whole nation. However, telecommunications companies do not share specific information of place a consumer can access 5G and of expected day for base station installation but just advertise that a consumer may have access to 5G including rural areas and small town in the demilitarized zone – near the border to the North. 3 Tele companies spent tones of budget to promote 5G service. Hence, they induced the consumers to subscribe to 5G service, regulating the right of choice. It caused the consumers to pay an expensive 5G fee without any other option.

June 8, PSPD reported to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) that the false and exaggerated 5G advertisements of 3 Tele companies. PSPD is going to keep monitoring the telecommunications market and ask the FTC and the Ministry of Science and ICT to fulfill their duties. 

 

Exclusive Asia Podcast in the nation – Asia Pod Ep.50

 

월간참여사회 2020년 7-8월 합본호 (통권 277호)

 

How much are you familiar with Asia as a person living in Asia? People hardly get to know about Asian countries other than China and Japan because lots of news about Asia is focused on these powerful nations. Many people would choose Asia countries for traveling as they are physically and emotionally close. Also, they are good travel destinations with great exchange rates. But how would people understand history, politics, culture and etc. of each country in Asia via a travel guide? This is why PSPD began broadcasting Asia Pod – a podcast specialized in Asia.

 

Asia Pod has already had the 50th episode since it broadcasted an episode about Asia’s Trump, the president of the Philippines Duterte’s 1st anniversary of the inauguration. Asia Pod has introduced various stories and the main news of Asian countries. In addition, as a member of the Asia community, Asia Pod has been discussing the expected roles and responsibilities of the Korean government and corporates and sharing opinions about solidarity for democracy.

 

Even though you are hardly able to travel the world due to COVID-19 pandemic as if you have been locked in the house, why don’t you listen to an episode about a country you already visited if you want to know how friends you met during the travel are doing. Or through Asia Pod, you may glance first the countries where you cannot go because of COVID-19. Like people say that a perspective depends on how much you know, Thailand, or Bali would be seemingly different from what you used to know. You might notice yourself, exotically reflected in the eyes of other Asians. Please spread the words and let many people listen to Asia Pod so that it can continue. 

 

Getting teachers back to the classroom! Sending a postcard to whistleblowers to encourage

 

월간참여사회 2020년 7-8월 합본호 (통권 277호)

 

Since its foundation, PSPD has been protecting and supporting the whistleblowers in the society, and also there is the Center for Whistleblower Support in PSPD. Of many movements, PSPD would like to introduce a campaign, writing a letter of hope with the citizens to support the whistleblowers.

 

“We Support Whistleblowers!” is a campaign sending the postcards that encourages the teachers who cannot go back to the classroom after having done whistleblowing corruption of private educational institutions and that demand protection of those teachers to the Seoul education superintendent. In addition to what the center did in the last year, on May 15 – the teachers’ day, PSPD has been supporting teacher, Kwon Jong-Hyun, who reported corruption of WooCheon private educational institution (WooShin high school) as the season 2 of the campaign.

 

Mr. Kwon got transferred after had contributed an opinion opposing the autonomous private high school policy. In 2012, as Mr. Kwon’s whistleblowing had been revealed by inspection of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, WooCheon institution gave several disadvantages in personnel affairs on Mr. Kwon. At last, Mr. Kwon was dismissed in 2019. Appeal Commission for Educators had concluded the cancellation of Mr. Kwon’s dismissal, the institution disobeyed it and even filed a lawsuit. PSPD would like to encourage you to participate in the campaign, “We Support Whistleblowers!” so that teachers may go back to school and their students.   

 

A Rigorous Legal Punishment, Needed for Lee Jae-Yong, A Vice President of Samsung

 

월간참여사회 2020년 7-8월 합본호 (통권 277호) 

 

In 2015, an unjust merger of Samsung C&T Corporation (SCT) that had been occurred in order for a vice president Lee Jae-Yong to realize management succession was an unprecedented crime that contained the three major corporation crimes – extortion of corporation property, derangement of capitalism, and bribery.

 

Since 2016, PSPD has kept pointing out an accounting fraud of Samsung Biologics taken place during the process of an unjust merger between SCT and Cheil Industries (CI). In December 2019, PSPD had accused Mr. Lee of a joint principal offender for both the unjust merger and accounting fraud, and the Center for Economics and Financial Justice held a press conference on June 8th to specifically explain what law Mr. Lee had violated. However, on the next day, request for an arrest warrant against Mr. Lee was rejected after all.

 

Some media pumped out the news advocating Lee Jae-Yong with the reasoning that his leadership is necessary for COVID-19 pandemic when the request for the arrest warrant was about to be issued and afterward. Yet, when the fact that Samsung Group achieved a high net profit in 2017 like never before is taken into consideration, Mr. Lee’s absence and the business situation of Samsung are not correlated. Meanwhile, after the rejection of the former arrest warrant, it was controversial that Samsung asked the Prosecution’s Investigation Review Committee (PIRC) to submit whether further investigation would take place and whether the request for arrest warrant would be issued again.

 

However, the former PIRC chairperson, Yang Chang-Soo, openly contributed an opinion, advocating Mr. Lee’s management succession, to the media. But, a brother in law of Mr. Yang is the director of Samsung Seoul Hospital, and one of his alumni is the former chairperson of the Samsung Future Strategy Office who is a suspect of the unjust merger. Therefore, PSPD kept contending that Yang Chang-Soo was unsuitable for fair investigation as the PIRC chairperson. Then he evaded fulfilling his duty. In accordance with the law and the principle, PSPD is going to keep an eye on Mr. Lee’s case as the first one who brought up the problem.

 

The PSPD Youth Council, Urging 65 Universities to Respond to the Posts that Contains Hatred

 

월간참여사회 2020년 7-8월 합본호 (통권 277호)

 

“Every time” is an application that the students utilize to manage the timetable. More than 4.4 million college students from the campuses in Korea currently use this app, and it makes the app the largest online community for them.

 

Its pivotal service, which is a bulletin board, has been operating based on anonymity. Therefore, the bulletin board is abused for expressing hatred by some users. The targets for displaying hatred are mainly women, disabled people, international students, and LGBTQ. The writers and the readers of this bulletin board share the campuses. In specific respect that the users are from the student body, each university and the center for human rights on campus are responsible for solving and preventing sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and hatred in the online community.

 

Hence, from May to June, PSPD Youth Council has sent the questionnaires to the universities, where the center for human rights is established, in order to figure out whether or not they properly responded to a hate post. Moreover, PSPD Youth Council demands them to reveal the relevant information. PSPD Youth Council will continuously suggest a possible solution to online hatred expression based on the results of the questionnaires and relevant information.

 

Translated by Park Jae-Min (Volunteer of PSPD)
 

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