South Korea

About 3,000 journalists at South Korea’s public broadcasters have been on strike since September demanding editorial independence.

South Korea’s Supreme Court orders government to allow an LGBT rights foundation to legally register as a charity, ending a three-year struggle against multiple government agencies.

High level government officials accused of creating a ‘blacklist’ against 9,743 artists in South Korea for their criticism of President Park Geun-hye are now themselves under investigation.

Prosecutors announced on Monday that they would request an 18-month prison sentence for Tatsuya Kato, former Seoul bureau chief of the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, over an article questioning President Park Geun-hye’s whereabouts during a tragic ferry accident in April 2014 that resulted in over 300 deaths.

The National Security Law criminalises positive comments about North Korea or the dissemination of North Korean propaganda. It has frequently been used against those with different views of North Korea or South Korean policy.

The recent stifling of critical voices in South Korea, including cases of arrests, deportation, and criminal defamation hearings in the past seven days, indicates a worrisome climate for press freedom and free expression.

In the latest use of criminal defamation legislation, eight aides of President Park Geun-hye filed a complaint against reporters and staff members of a South Korean newspaper for reporting about a leaked document from the president’s office.

Japanese journalist Tatsuya Kato was charged with criminal defamation for a story that criticised the behavior of South Korean President Park Geun-hye during the Sewol ferry disaster in April 2014.

Tatsuya Kato, a Japanese journalist who is the Tokyo newspaper “Sankei Shimbun”‘s Seoul correspondent, is the subject of a criminal libel prosecution over a story about the South Korean president’s actions at the time of a ferry sinking in April 2014.

The South Korean government has adopted an aggressive interpretation of their copyright law to block websites in the name of copyright enforcement. In practice, this emulates the kinds of extreme provisions that were in the defeated U.S. SOPA bill.

An inside look into the often forgotten struggles of those who have escaped the brutal regime of North Korea and what one non-governmental group is doing to help them.

While supporters say the National Security Law in South Korea is necessary to protect a fragile peace against the North Korean threat, critics say the threat of North Korean infiltration is exaggerated and the law is really meant to stifle dissent within the country.

South Korea is embroiled in a “textbook war” over what high school students learn in history class. With schools selecting their textbooks for the coming academic year, objections have been raised to one textbook that critics felt distorted the country’s history of Japanese occupation and military dictatorship.

A recently released film in South Korea set out to spark a discussion on free speech in the country, and amid opposition and cancelled viewings, it has done just that.

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the action of the owner and chairman of the South Korean daily “Hankook Ilbo”, in locking out around 180 of his journalists after some of them filed a complaint about his management of the newspaper.

Media groups have called for the re-instatement of journalists dismissed by two South Korean broadcasting companies in 2012 following a protest against alleged government interference in the media.