NDM News Story 37: Following North Korea on Twitter is not a crime, court rules

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/following-north-korea-on-twitter-is-not-a-court-rules

A South Korean court acquitted Lee Pyong Yang of his charge for a year in prison as sympathising with North Korea and following them on Twitter was not violating Seoul's security laws. The 73 year old was found guilty as he was proven to be supporting North Korea through his own twitter account leading him to be sentenced to one year in prison with 2 years of his account being suspended. This is due to South Korea's National Security laws which protect them from North Korea, however Pyong Yang was acquitted as he had neither re-tweeted any of North Korea's posts or mentioned them in his posts, and merely only followed the account.

• South Korea’s National Security Laws, enacted in 1948 to protect the fledgling state from infiltration by the communist North, ban its citizens from praising or sympathising with Pyongyang.
• North Korea joined the global social media networks in 2010 and has posted more than 17,500 tweets since then
• Its Twitter account has over 18,500 followers.

This article shows how the advancements with new and digital media has led to people having the ability to access restricted information and communicate with counties who are highly secretive and covert. However, it can also mean that one's movements on-line is hardly personal and can be easily found out by anyone else, especially those with authoritative power.