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Alert

South Korean authorities block access to about 30 North Korean propaganda websites

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has criticised South Korea for blocking access to about 30 North Korean propaganda websites. The organisation appealed for the week-old ban to be lifted in the name of free expression. But RSF called strong North Korean protests against the move hypocritical, since the Pyongyang regime forbids ordinary people from using the Internet at all.

"The ban by the South is unacceptable but we call on the North to show the same tolerance it is demanding of the South and allow its citizens free access to the Internet."

South Korean Telecommunications Minister Chung Dae-soon said the website blocking had been approved by an ethics committee under the National Security Law, which forbids the distribution of material supporting Pyongyang. The law has been used routinely to jail Communist journalists since its passage in 1948. Among the banned websites is that of the Kim Il-sung University (http://www.ournation-school.com).

The minister's statement clashed with South Korean President Roh Moo-huyn's recent declared intention to repeal the National Security Law.

The North Korean Telecommunications Ministry called the blocking "unprecedented fascist suppression [that is] quite contrary to the requirements of the information technology age."

RSF noted that such remarks were ironic coming from one of the world's harshest regimes where press freedom is concerned. North Korea does not permit any independent media and only a handful of privileged people in the country are allowed to use the Internet.