Day 150: Censorship

As some of you may have heard by now, I've been having a lot of problems with my blog over the last couple of weeks.  This started back when I was in Shihung and it wasn't until today that I found out what's been going on.  My problem is that I haven't been able to read my own blog!  I can access my blog via the blogger site, and I can write my entries, but I can't actually go to the site and view it like you can.  Every time I try the computer just waits and waits and eventually an error/time-out message pops up.  What the...???

When this first started happening I asked a few people around the world if they could still read my blog.  Everyone could - all across Canada and the US and even my buddy Ryan in Taiwan...but nobody I knew in Korea (incl. myself!) could read it!  Okay this sounds very suspicious...  Why would the rest of the world have no problem reading my blog, but nobody in Korea can?  What's up?

I had no idea what was going on until my co-worker Peter filled me in.  He has a blog on blogger.com as well and had been having the same problem as me.  Well he wrote blogger support and they emailed him back and filled him completely in.  Here's the scoop - (and I was quite shocked, but at the same time not really, when I first heard why...)

The Korean government has completely blocked all access/viewing privileges to the blogger site by anyone and everyone in the country.  Why you may ask?  This is all because of an event that took place in Iraq a few weeks ago that caused massive ripples across Korea in various ways...

A few weeks ago a Korean worker in Iraq was captured and threatened to be killed unless the Korean government pulled out all of its troops from Iraq.  The Korean government refused and as a result the man was beheaded on camera.  His death is just one of the many beheadings that have been taking place in Korea but it came as a horrific shock to the country.  All of Korea went into shock and mourning over the man's death (his name was Kim Sun-Il I believe) and the media jumped on top of it and ate it up like candy.  It was all over the news and everywhere you went it was all you heard about.

Well the video footage of his beheading obviously made it onto the internet and was soon being viewed by various individuals across Korea.  The Korean government had already banned this footage and photographs from being aired on TV/printed in the papers and did not want Koreans seeing it so they shut down every single website that tried to display it.  In the middle of this frenzy, there was someone who had a site on blogger who decided to post photos of the beheading on their blog, and this pissed off the Korean government.  In retaliation, they blocked all access to not just his but ALL blogs in the country to stop this. 

This totally fucking pisses me off!  And for several reasons!  Firstly, it's annoying that I can't even access my own damn blog.  I can write in it, but can't read my entries unless I go into 'edit' mode on the site from within the control panel.  This event took place over a month ago and the sensationalism that surrounded his beheading has come and gone already.  Why should the government still block it?  Exactly for how long are they planning on keeping the blockade up?  Will I not be able to read my own blog for the rest of the time I'm in Korea?

Secondly, what kind of so-called democracy goes to such lengths to censor the media, in all forms (television, newspapers, the internet, etc.) in order to prevent images which it deems not suitable for its citizens.  What happened to making up your own fucking mind about what's appropriate for one's own self to see?  I'm terribly sad to hear about this innocent man's death, and have no urge myself to view the footage, but I don't agree with the government deciding what I can and cannot view.  This censorship is something that I would expect in a country like China or Cuba, not in a nation that claims to be modern and cosmopoiltan and open to new ideas and influence from the outside world.  Is this disgusting behaviour just Korean's past as The Hermit Nation rearing its ugly head again?

And thirdly, I find it entirely hypocritical of the Korean government to do this.  Just a week or two before Kim Sun-Il's beheading, two Americans were beheaded and the footage of their deaths did not get censored at all.  In fact, they had the footage being aired on the 6 o'clock news for anyone and everyone to see!!!  So, in other words, it's completely okay and appropriate for anyone to see two Americans getting beheaded (including children who could be watching such regular evening programming) but not if its a Korean?  Why should those two Americans not be extended the same respect and dignity as Kim Sun-Il?  (Not that I support censorship at all, but their argument has no grounds at all if they pick and choose based on nationality like that.)

It's fucking stupid!

I'm trying not to be the judgemental foreigner here, but it's been a huge inconvenience for me and I'm finding it impossible to understand or respect this government decision.  Arghh!!!!  Anyway, at least now I know why I've been having so many problems with my blog!  But who's to say when it will actually end?  I just may have to get used to this situation - shitty!