"IGLHRC CALLS FOR PROTEST OF KOREAN NET CENSORSHIP"

http://www.outlineschicago.com/0outlines/01829/wnews.html

The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission Aug. 23 called for
protests against South Korea's new ban on gay Internet content. 

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) adopted an Internet
content rating system that classifies gay and lesbian Web sites as "harmful
media" that must be blocked to protect young people. 

The ministry acted after an April decision by the Korean Information and
Communications Ethics Committee (ICEC) that classified homosexuality as
"obscenity and perversion" in its "Criteria for Indecent Internet Sites." 

Korean activists trace the roots of this definition to a 1997 law that
categorizes "homosexual love" as "harmful to youth." 

Since the MIC accepted this definition in July, access to most Korean
gay/lesbian Web sites has been blocked. On July 30, Ivancity.com, the
nation's largest gay Web site, was shut down by the Internet service provider
(ISP) that hosted it, without any notice or request for content modification.
Gay online clubs at two of Korea's biggest Web portals (Daum and Say Club)
also were deleted, reportedly on orders from the ICEC. 

The new restrictions require Internet cafes and other public computer
facilities accessible to youth to install filtering software, and force ISPs
to block access to all questionable Web sites. They also enforce "an Internet
content rating system which is likely to contain a number of components: a
list of officially banned sites, a regime of compulsory self-rating by
Web-page designers, and blockage of Web sites based on a control list of
keywords," IGLHRC said. 

"The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission joins the Lesbian
and Gay Alliance Against Discrimination in Korea, a coalition of over twenty
lesbian and gay rights organizations (as well as Web site masters), in
calling for urgent letters of protest to end this Internet censorship, revise
the repressive 1997 law, and protect freedom of expression in Korea," the
group said. 

For addresses and additional information, visit www.iglhrc.org