Investor Presentaiton

354 South Korea harmful communications are referred to as content that aims at or abets a criminal act, aims at committing antistate activities, or impedes good customs and other aspects of social order. 17 Harmful communications can be further restricted by order of the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), which delegates this authority to the Information and Communication Ethics Committee (ICEC). 18 The ICEC was established under an amended Telecommunications Business Act (1995) to regulate the content of communications and inform state policy aimed at suppressing subver- sive communications and "promoting active and healthy information."19 23 21 In June 2002, the Supreme Court struck down the provisions of the Telecommuni- cations Business Act defining “harmful" content and granted the government unlim- ited authority to regulate harmful Internet content. 20 The court held Article 53(1) to be insufficiently specific and clear, and Article 53(2) to violate the rule against blanket delegation. In December 2002, the National Assembly amended Article 53 to prohibit content that is "illegal" rather than “harmful,” while upholding the executive powers of the MIC and the delegated regulatory authority of the ICEC.22 This provision was ultimately repealed with the 2007 amendment of the Act on Promotion of Informa- tion and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (Informa- tion Act), although the definition referring to "illegal" material remains in place at least functionally. 24 Illegal information included in types of information to be reported continues to be defined as that which infringes on public interests and social order, specifically obscenity, defamation, violence or cruelty, and incitement to gambling.2 Specific laws to protect youth, national security, and other national priorities have informed the scope of content that is regulated by government-delegated bodies respon- sible for filtering. For example, the NSL 26. provides "up to seven years in prison for those who praise, encourage, disseminate or cooperate with antistate groups, members or those under their control. 7 Similarly, the directive to protect the country's youth from “harmful"28 Internet content, broadly described as "immoral, violent, obscene, specula- tive and antisocial information, "29 has been one of the central planks in South Korea's filtering policy. In accordance with the Juvenile Protection Act, ISPs are responsible for making inappropriate content inaccessible on their networks. 30 Web sites carrying adult content must warn visitors and require identification verification for access-measures meant to prevent minors under 19 from accessing pornographic material.³¹ "27 25 In February 2008, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) was created to consolidate the MIC and the Korean Broadcasting Commission (KBC). Under South Korea's current legal framework, regulation of Internet content is conducted primarily by two government agencies: the Korean Communications Standards Commission (KCSC; formerly KISCOM) 32 and the National Election Commission (NEC). The KCSC integrated the functions of the KBC and KISCOM33 in February 2008.34 Accordingly, the two KCSC subcommissions deal separately with broadcasting and telecommunica- tions standards. 35

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