“Liberal” South Korean authorities launch criminal investigation of political parody posters
At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern. “[T]he freedom to speak one’s mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty — and thus a good unto itself — but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole.”
– Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46, 50-51 (1988).
Even before he was inaugurated, South Korea’s “liberal” President, Moon Jae-in, began nibbling at the margins of free speech, prosecuting the unpopular, censoring the powerless, and hearing only sporadic and token mewlings of concern from his journalist admirers. Having found this much fit for consumption, he is now hacking off thick chops from its body. On Monday, the semi-official Yonhap News Service reported that South Korean police are investigating this on-the-nose April Fools’ Day parody of a North Korean propaganda poster, satirically using a name almost identical to that of the pro-North Korean former student group, Chondaehyop.1 The poster, of course, is primarily a satire of Moon, his appeasement of the world’s most oppressive tyrant, and his disastrous economic policies.
It’s not North Korea by a long shot, but it’s not a free society by a long shot, either. It’s sort of “south North Korea.”
Police said Monday they were informed about the posters by school officials who collected them and called 112. Officers retrieved CCTV footage to track down the suspects and said they would determine whether the posters were a libel case. The far-right group probably won’t be charged for breaching the National Security Law for now, police told reporters, because the posters did not praise the North. [Joongang Ilbo]
Whether you agree with the criticism should bear no relevance to any defender, on the left or the right, of Koreans’ freedom of expression. The economy and North Korea policy are issues at the heart of South Korea’s once-vibrant political debate. And for those with even a passing familiarity with current South Korean events or North Korean propaganda, this satirical list of theses has moments of brilliant parody, profound insight, and off-putting excess—all of which should be debated openly. Read the whole thing at Tara O’s blog. I’ll just quote a part of her translation:
South Korean People’s Mother-Father President Moon Jae-in crushed the dirty self-employed and small business owners’ hideous pursuit of profit and established the law of the traditional four classes of society (scholars, farmers, artisans, and tradesmen) with his miraculous income-led growth; forever gave time off to the youths who had groaned under hard labor with his minimum wage increase; and when “JeokpaeIlbaeJahandang” [jeokpae (accumulated evil) Ilbe (conservative website) Liberty Korea Party (Jahandang, an acronym for the main opposition party)] displeased the feeling of the Great Power [China] using fine dust as an excuse, prevented South Korean dust from damaging China by defying the west wind [wind from the west; China is west of Korea] through vehicle control and various regulations, thereby restoring Sinocentric order by currying favor with the Great Power and correcting China-South Korea relations.
By dismantling the nuclear power plants, he made the South Korean people realize the importance of energy and made everyone shut off lights even at home and caused a candlelight revolution; discontinued three major military exercises with U.S. forces in Korea, which are the main obstacle to revolution; disarmed South Korea by dismantling the five forward deployed infantry divisions, giving up the Northern Limit Line, blowing up GPs [guard posts at the DMZ], and removing anti-tank barriers and Han River barbed wire fence. [Taro O]
Parody has a long tradition as a peaceful weapon of public debate, from the earliest days of our republic, to Swift’s parody of English heartlessness in the face of the Irish famine, to Thomas Nast’s parodies of Boss Tweed. Chief Justice Rehnquist, writing for the unanimous Court, quoted an article arguing for the importance of protecting even speech that offends the powerful: ”The political cartoon is a weapon of attack, of scorn and ridicule and satire; it is least effective when it tries to pat some politician on the back. It is usually as welcome as a bee sting, and is always controversial in some quarters.” That principle has gained wide acceptance in our society, and in all free societies.
The parody posters of Moon Jae-in are not just squarely within the kind of political speech that the laws of most democracies guard from both powerful and petty authoritarians. They also fall squarely within Korea’s own tradition of the political poster as a medium of dissent, and of the college campus as a venue for dissent. That is only fitting and proper, given that the next class will graduate into record-high youth unemployment, and a society where their democratic avenues to demand change are narrowing to a vanishing point.
Incidentally—and I feel the need to say this because there are people in Twitter who lie without compunction, or who don’t much care what the truth is—I’ve argued consistently for well over a decade that the National Security Law is overbroad and should not be used to punish non-violent speech, even when the speech is explicitly pro-North Korean. I’ve opposed the abuse of defamation suits by the right as well as the left. After 30 years of democracy, the time has come to let the Korean people speak, hear, and think for themselves—in both South and North. If South Koreans can’t resist the allure of North Korean propaganda by now, God save them, because neither censorship laws nor the U.S. Army can. So for today, OFK will be a free speech wall for the ideas the censors don’t want you to read–ideas you never would have read had the censors not tried to extinguish them in the first place.
[Pennmike]
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1. Chondaehyop was a violent, pro-North Korean, anti-American student group that is believed to be responsible for an arson attack at a U.S. cultural center, botched firebombings of the U.S. Embassy and its Consular Annex, the occupation of the U.S. Ambassador’s residence, and the murder of a suspected police informant. Until 1989, its leader was Im Jong-seok, who would later go on to be President Moon’s Chief of Staff for a year and a half. Chondaehyop’s successor organization, Hangchonryon, also carried out multiple violent demonstrations and firebombings at U.S. military installations in Korea before, during, and after my tour.