In January, FSD agreed to co-sponsor a panel at the ICA conference in Seoul addressing the South Korean government's recent efforts to censor the nation's oldest and largest gay website, Exzone.com.
David Gleason, co-chair of ICA's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Interest Group, said in a January e-mail message to ICA division heads, that he believed "this silencing of lesbian/gay media within Korea should be addressed by ICA" during the conference. Gleason organized the panel, which will have multiple co-sponsorship by ICA divisions.
FSD Chair Carolyn Byerly will be a panelist. Byerly’s recent research examines the impact of gay and lesbian activism on US news organizations.
In early January, the South Korean Ministry of Information and Communication ordered the website to label itself a "harmful site" preventing access to young people. Since July 2001, the government has blocked more than 12,000 websites, including several gay-oriented sites.
These actions are part of a new government policy that classifies homosexuality as an "obscenity and perversion" in categorizing Internet sites. Failure to follow the government policies could result in a $10,000 fine and a two-year prison sentence for site owners. The government's order follows a 1997 law that classifies descriptions of "homosexual love" as "harmful to youth," according to a press release by Rex Wockner of International News #403.
The Lesbian and Gay Alliance Against Discrimination in Korea and other gay South Korean organizations filed a suit on January 9, challenging the government's ruling. The suit claims that the censorship violates the constitution's guarantees of freedom of expression, speech and press.
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