South Korean prosecutors indicted a blogger on Thursday who had warned of financial doom for the country with critics saying he was targeted because his gloomy forecasts upset the government battling an economic downturn.
The blogger, writing under the pseudonym Minerva, became a household name for his predictions of sharp falls in the won and the local stock market and the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers. Prosecutors said he hurt the local currency by posting incorrect information online.
“The suspect in this case was indicted on charges of false information on two occasions,” an official at the prosecutors’ office said by telephone.
As South Korean markets tumbled late last year amid the global downturn, the main financial regulator warned it would crack down on what it considered malicious rumors and some economic analysts say they have come under pressure from authorities not to voice negative views on the economy.
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/9283/indicted-for-predicting-doom/
Indicted for Predicting Doom
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Not too long before we see that kind of thing here in the united states. Might be a good time to keep your head down and mind our own business, educating those in our personal lives who care.
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Ahh statism….
It’s illegal to be right.
Soon it will be illegal to be logical.
I agree with jason, lets keep our heads low and keep things local with the people we can most influence. Any form of libertarian revolt against such things has to start locally.
Riiight, one person caused the whole stinkin’ thing to come crashing down. Only a government could get away with being upset with the direction of a market, blame it on ONE guy, then decide on legal action of such an oppressively shocking nature that it is bound to make the markets worse. It’s all about control … all the time.
I have been looking for reasons why Koreans would move from South Korea to places are not as materially well of such as Argentina. I guess this could be one of the reasons. It is scary that governments are policing the internet. Many people believe they are free from this kind of tyranny if they post things anonymously online. I hope South Korea is more of an exception than a rule as we Austro-libertarians continue to work to free ourselves around the world.
THOUGHT POLICE.
I guess when it comes to total government control, North or South doesn’t matter.
“You have nothing to fear but fearmongers themselves.”
- FDR
Jason, now is not the time to keep our heads low. It is precisely the opposite. “Don’t give into evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.” We need to scream from the rooftops about this tyranny!
This is not the time to be silent. This is the time to proclaim loudly, “We will not be silent!” Ducking for cover has us taking our shoes off at the airport, not protesting in the streets for the repeal of the USA PATRIOT Act, and allowing the US government to prosecute rude behavior as terrorism.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-airline-felonies20-2009jan20,0,1698279,full.story
It is a shame that they killed Howard Beale. We really could use him right about now. (Google it, if you don’t get the reference.)
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