Democratic Party: "Inkiwi, Now 'Muzzling'... Shameless People, Don't Become a Subversive Workshop"

Calls for Resignation of Chairman Ahn Changho and Standing Commissioner Kim Yongwon

The Democratic Party harshly criticized the National Human Rights Commission for allegedly attempting censorship by deciding to introduce a 'report and delete' system on its internal free bulletin board, calling it "an outrageous gagging of the Human Rights Commission."

Lee Nayoung, deputy spokesperson for the Democratic Party, stated in a commentary on the 1st, "Chairman Ahn Changho and Standing Commissioner Kim Yongwon, who are leading the downfall of human rights, should step down from their positions."

Lee said, "Chairman Ahn and Standing Commissioner Kim, who led the protection of the traitor Yoon Seokyeol and reduced the Human Rights Commission to a special review subject of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, have now started gagging employees by censoring the internal bulletin board," adding, "After leaving a disgraceful mark on the Human Rights Commission with their distorted loyalty to Woo Yoonchung, are they now planning to suppress even internal criticism aimed at restoring the commission's honor?"

She continued, "It is a national disgrace that the Human Rights Commission, which should prevent censorship, is leading it. Are they blind to the national dignity of the Republic of Korea collapsing due to rebellion because of their loyalty to the traitor? Why must the Korean people's human rights standards fall and they endure such humiliation due to the atrocities of the pro-rebellion forces Ahn Changho and Kim Yongwon?"

She then declared, "The National Human Rights Commission is not a shameless workshop for rebellion. Ahn Changho and Kim Yongwon should properly control their own words and actions and immediately step away from the commission."

Ahn Chang-ho, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, is seated at the 2nd plenary meeting held on the 10th at the National Human Rights Commission in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News.

The Human Rights Commission explained the previous day that "there have been issues raised by employees regarding the need for improvement due to human rights problems such as infringement of employees' personal rights caused by some posts containing unclear information or insults and slanders against specific individuals (departments). Therefore, employees were allowed to freely report posts."

On the 28th of last month, Chairman Ahn approved the 'Free Bulletin Board Operation Improvement Plan,' which introduced a 'report' function on the internal network's free bulletin board and granted administrators the authority to delete posts.

Criticism has emerged both inside and outside the commission that the introduction of this report and delete system is intended to censor internal public opinion. The National Public Officials Labor Union Human Rights Commission branch issued a statement on the same day, saying, "Censorship of the free bulletin board is a regression to the era of public security," and criticized, "The plan to operate first without any procedure to collect members' opinions and then gather feedback is a measure that restricts the free expression and opinion of the commission's members."

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission stated that it plans to pilot the system from next month until November, collect employee feedback, and then finalize the system.