After the initial announcement in Korean on this video clip the announcement will be made in English along with in a variety of other languages:

If you read the comments on YouTube there is people claiming that South Korea is becoming like North Korea, which of course is utter nonsense.

What I find interesting about this is that I didn’t see MBC complaining about losing freedom of speech when Roh Moo-hyun launched the biggest block of Internet sites in Korean history.  I also didn’t hear MBC say a word when Roh was busy trying to implement his media reforms against conservative newspapers that was ultimately striken down by Korea’s Supreme Court for being unconstitutional.  Don’t even get me started on Korea’s libel laws.

Korea didn’t have freedom of speech long before Lee Myung-bak took office.  He is just continuing a long tradition of Korean Presidents trying to control the media.  Last year’s mad cow nonsense gave him the excuse he needed.