Almost every evening for the past month, thousands of people have been gathering at Seoul City Hall square. They don’t like the new President’s policy and they want to show it. And in these gatherings, laptops are a must have. Some people carrying computers film the crowd with their webcam and broadcast live videos thanks to high-speed wifi connections. "People who live in Seoul can go on the streets", one of them says, "and some of those who do not live in the capital-city can come all the way here. But people who cannot, can at least see what is happening here live, through the internet."
 

This is called broadband democracy and these Koreans are Netizens, Internet Citizens. They first voiced their discontent in cyberspace before taking to the streets. One man, sitting on the floor in front of his laptop is writing a live transcript of what is being said on the stage for a website. "What I want to do is inform people through the internet", explains Chai Kun-shik, "provide them with detailed information on the situation and tell them the facts the governement is hiding".

Sung-dae, a college student, collaborates with the same website. When he can’t attend a demonstration, he follows it live on the Internet. He says being a Netizen is very easy in Korea. The country ranks first among OECD nations in terms of household access to the internet. "We have wireless Internet everywhere and as long as you have a laptop, you can access Internet very easily", he tells France 24. "Even out of Seoul, in the countryside, it is the same".

Ohmynews has become an institution. This web paper was created in 2000 to rival the largely conservative newspapers that rarely questionned the authorities. During the 2002 presidential election campain, Ohmynews played a major role in insuring that a progressive candidate came into power. But not in 2007, when stricter laws were implemented. "In 2007, we didn’t have the right to give our opinion on public forums or websites, only on private blogs", says editor in chief Lee Han-ki. "It was officially forbidden to voice support for one candidate. People who wrote such articles were arrested by the police and this stopped people from voicing their opinions on the Internet".

It was only after the election, that Netizens were able to talk freely again on the Web. What is clear is that the Internet has become a real counter-power in South-korea, which is why new laws, aimed at controlling Internet content, are expected to be implemented in a couple of months.

http://www.france24.com/en/20080618-south-korea-internet-netizen-demonstration-democracy-broadcasting