Submission of the urgent appeal on Internet pundit , Minerva Case to UN

Submission of the urgent appeal on Internet pundit Minerva who arrested and indicted for violating the law against dissemination of false information

By this Urgent Appeal, PSPD requests UNHCHR’s action to abolish the law allowing criminally punishment on disseminating false information in Korea. PSPD also explains that if the court sentences guilt on newspaper consumer’s boycott, which will be announced on February 19, it will basically toll a death knell for any effective consumer boycott. In this regard it claims that UNHCHR should take an urgent action on this issue.      

The report “Need to Preserve Free Speech from Government Suppression”, written by Prof. K.S. Park, Korea University, about crisis of freedom of expression in Korea is also submitted. This report firstly addresses four incidents violating ICCPR: 1)Minerva Case, 2)Governor Kim Moon Soo Case, 3)Pro-Government Newspaper Advertiser Boycott Case, 4)PD Diary Mad Cow Disease Case and secondly criticizes on the point that Korea is only OECD country which holds the laws violating “Article 19 of the UN International Covenant on the Civic and Political Rights” (ICCPR)  

urgent_appeal.doc