인터넷에서의 표현의 자유와 그 한계 -인터넷포털에서 발생하는 불법행위를 중심으로-

Abstract

On June, 2008, some Korean online activists, mostly liberals, drove a campaign to call advertisers to pull ads from print media which stand on the opposite side of them in ideological spectrum. Activists were gathering at a web cafe, named "stop Cho Joong Dong," the last three words of which are the initials of top three newspapers in Korea. Everyday for more than two months, a list of advertisers who put ads in those newspapers, urging messages to call advertisers, and bragging notes of what they did to the advertisers are stuck on the web cafe board. Some activists even called to reserve seats, and suddenly cancelled the reservation to penalize the advertisers privately. This new campaign causes a brawl. The Korean Bar Association issued an announcement to stop the campaign as it is against the penal code, which prohibits interference of doing business. However, another lawyers association, almost all members of which are liberals, announced that this campaign is just a form of expression, therefore it is fully protected. In this article, I have analyzed the campaign in terms of freedom of expression, and reached a conclusion that it cannot be protected under anyrationale to support the freedom of expression, for ultimate goal of the campaign is to close the newspapers they do not like. It is totally different from the campaign led by 'FoxAttacks' or 'Media Matters for America'in the United States. American online activists are focused on monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Calling advertisers to pull ads is just a way of expressing their ideas. However, in Korea, calling advertisers is a step to make the newspapers stop printing.