사이버공간 규제와 표현의 자유

The explosive rise in internet population brought about a big change in the whole sphere of our life. And, cyber space, which in connected through internet, came to form another virtual community from real space. All the spheres in society came to be influenced by internet. And, accordingly, the free use of information leads not only to social development but also to an increase in negative cases of causing damage such as cyber crimes of including abusive language, slander, sexual violence, and cyber libel. What the regulation on cyber libel is controversial will be said to be attributable to a problem of a collision in two values called an individual’s reputation protection and freedom of expression, and to the characteristic of medium called internet different from the conventional press media. Especially, the libel on cyber space has characteristics such as openness, interactivity, anonymity, and existence of ISP, and has diverse types and characters according to these characteristics, thereby requiring new paradigm on this regulation. Our country is now discipling cyber libel through the penal provisions in the Article 70 of the information network law, but there is no regulation of contempt and a dead person`s libel on cyber, thereby applying with the regulation of the criminal law. And, due to the lack of regulation in legitimate self-defense like the Article 310 in the criminal law, the unreasonable aspect exists in punishment. Also, kinds in online service providers fail to be segmented, thereby being able to be said that a problem in light of regulation such as legal responsibility is raised. A problem of supplementing the existing law on th is will be imminent. However, the problem of the conventional information network law needs to be considered in enacting this law. And, in particular, regulations are thought to be needed by considering a problem of harmony with freedom of expression and a problem of responsibility in online service provider. As for the countermeasure against cyber libel, the legitimately criminal-law countermove is also important. However, prior to this, the basic solution is thought to have necessity of preceding the reinforcement in moral consciousness of netizens, who use cyber, and the reinforcement in moral education of each educational institution.