Korean Censorship

In its attempt to keep the video footage of the Kim Sun-il beheading from being seen in South Korea, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) has been aggressively censoring the images from the Internet. According to Robert Koehler at the Marmot's Hole, the government and ISPs have blocked access to blog service providers Blogspot and Typepad in a rather "ham-fisted" manner.

Jeff in Korea expresses outrage at the censorship and implores President Roh to "Tear down this wall!" In Jeff's words from Pusan,

On the night of June 24, 2004, the Korean government, without any real warning and without discretion, began raising a cyber wall around Korea, isolating residents and preventing them from accessing outside information. One by one, throughout the following days, internet domains fell under the hammer of the South Korean dictatorial regime.

It appears that some citizens have been arrested and taken into custody for hosting, posting, or distributing the video.

Kevin at Incestuous Amplification appears to be taking the censorship in stride as typical for the South Korean government. He's going on hiatus for a while.

In summary, there's no question that the censorship is occurring, however, among the many Korea bloggers, reactions are mixed. Personally, I think the issue should get more international exposure. The authorities need to be reminded that democratic countries don't arbitrarily take away free speech without protest from the rest of the world.