Censorship in South Korea is implemented by various laws that were included in the constitution as well as acts passed by the National Assembly over the decades since 1948.
These include the National Security Act, whereby the government may limit the expression of ideas that it perceives "praise or incite the activities of anti-state individuals or groups".
However, ever since the inauguration of president Lee Myung-bak in 2008, South Korea has experienced a noticeable decline in freedom of expression for both journalists and the general public.
For example, the country bans pornography, and there exists a "cyber defamation law" which allows the authorities to crack down on comments deemed "hateful" without any reports from victims, with citizens being sentenced for such offenses.
[7] Originally, the law was enacted in opposition to specific North Korean forces, but it was later expanded to encapsulate any "anti-state" group seen as against the views of the government.
[1] Importantly, the law allows the government to punish anyone who would "praise, encourage, disseminate or cooperate" with the efforts of a group deemed to be "anti-state" with up to 7 years in prison.
It described the National Security Act as a tool to "harass and arbitrarily prosecute individuals and civil society organizations who are peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, opinion and association."
"[8] After Park Chung Hee's military coup and subsequent rise to power in 1961, his regime invalidated the Constitution as well as the democratically elected legislature.
[1] His regime targeted artists and politicians alike, jailing leaders who would later hold the office as president as well as writers such as Kim Chi-ha.
[10] After Chun Doo-hwan assumed power in another military coup, he too declared martial law in response to widespread uprisings among the country's students.
[1] Due to foreign and domestic condemnation of Chun's policies and actions, a new Constitution was formed which guaranteed the freedom to organize into opposition parties.
[1] Although the political climate liberalized slightly with the new Constitution, the regime continued to target perceived threats from North Korea with the powers granted by the National Security Law.
[1] However, in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, student and worker protests were suppressed under the auspices of the National Security Law.
[1] In 2019, Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family proposed strict guidelines on K-pop stars, essentially censoring most content deemed "unhealthy" by them, only to be met with strong opposition among fans of the genre.
In 2021, President Moon Jae-in's party introduced a law to control the narrative of historical topics, such as the Gwangju massacre, Japan's colonial rule of Korea, the comfort women, and the sinking of MV Sewol.
However, under the National Security Law, the government may limit the expression at any given time of ideas that may "praise" or "incite" the "activities of antistate individuals or groups".
Chapter XXXIII of South Korea's penal code outlines various crimes against reputation, which include criminal defamation.
[6] In October 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that disclosing someone's LGBT identity without their consent constitutes criminal defamation if the disclosure harms the individual's reputation.
[31] The Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticized the Korea Communications Standards Commission for proposing censorship of the blog of an internet free speech activist.
[44] In 2021, South Korea's largest messenger app, KakaoTalk, began censoring real-time pornographic clips or 19+ video clips in open chat at the request of the government, and NetxHack.com, South Korea's most popular VPN reviewer, tested the system with dozens of users and found it to be flawed, with even scenes from G-rated anime and photos that shouldn't be objectionable to children being censored.
[52] In recent years, sexual scenes have been a major issue that pits filmmakers against the Korea Media Rating Board.
For example, in 2016, Chinese embassy successfully lobbied to halt theatrical production by American Shen Yun company, affiliated with Falun Gong movement banned in China.