Real-Name for Bulletin Boards in Place

It will soon be mandatory that any person who writes on an electronic bulletin board uses his or her real name. In addition, IMT-2000, the next generation mobile service, will be provided as originally scheduled to the residents in Seoul. The service however will not be available until after 2006 to South Koreans in the country. It was initially scheduled to encompass the whole nation by the year 2006.

The plans were included in a report submitted yesterday by Information and Telecommunication Minister Chin Dae Je to President Roh Moo-hyun. They will constitute the main themes of the future policy of the ministry.

In briefing, the president on the new policy, Minister Chin said that his ministry would make it mandatory to use real names when a person writes a message on the electronic bulletin boards of all government agencies. The "real name" obligation is now being enforced by all nine ministries. Minister Chin cited, based on the introduction of the new policy, prevention of dissemination of false information and control over ensuing libel lawsuits should be upheld. Nevertheless, a person can insist on anonymity when reporting a criminal act.

Then, after mustering consensus on the part of citizens, for example, hearings, the ministry also intends to apply the system to the private sector. In response, some web users voice their opposition, arguing that the mandatory real-name system abridges the person`s rights to freedom of speech. Thus, a heated debate is expected to follow in the process.

During the briefing, President Roh made it clear that he opposed re-allowance of rebates for activation of a new handset. The government previously announced that it would allow rebates only for PDA’s and other cutting-edge gadgets.

Roh said though: "Allowance of rebates is against the principles of the market economy. Thus, in order to maintain consistency in national policy and systems, we have to approach the issue carefully."

The announced rebate-incentive would not be available to every customer.

In addition, as to the decision by the Kim Dae Jung administration to adopt the American-type digital TV system, Roh and his cabinet members agreed to delay the decision since 1.2 million digital TV sets have already been sold in South Korea. Domestic companies retain the key technology, and exports would be better off with the current system, explained the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication.

Meanwhile, Minister Chin promised to pour government support and resources into development and advancement of nine products such as digital TV, mobile telecommunication gadgets, and semiconductors to achieve its goals of creating 400 trillion won in connection with the IT industry and exporting products up to 100 billion dollars by the year 2007.

Under the "real name" system, only a person whose ID is verified by a government agency can write a message on the electronic bulletin board. Daum, a portal site in South Korea, put up the issue for vote last month. The result shows that 32.3% of the respondents voted for introduction of the system, while 33.4% voted against it.

Jong sik Kong kong@donga.com