Minerva gained popularity when he correctly predicted the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the sharp decline in the value of the won before it happened. Opinion is divided on the issue of his arrest. Should the government have arrested him
YES
Minerva broke the law; he should be arrested. The law specifically states that spreading false rumors to damage the public good should be punished. While it is still not definitively determined that he damaged the public good or spread false rumors, there is enough evidence to arrest him and begin a trial. It is a very simple matter - those who break the law should be punished.
He was a loose cannon with too much popularity and not enough responsibility. He was an anonymous Internet user with no institution or career to protect, and could therefore act as irresponsibly as he wished. This is no different than millions of other people on the Internet, except that too many people listened to what he said. When he began to spread false information, he became too dangerous to be allowed to continue.
Finally, Minerva gained so much influence over the Korean financial market that his predictions could become self-fulfilling prophecies. Minerva predicted that the housing market would decline over 50% by the end of 2009. This kind of prediction can spontaneously come true when said by someone in a position of influence. In this time of financial crisis, buyers and sellers in the housing market could be driven into a panic with such a statement, which could actually decrease housing prices. Therefore it would be possible for Minerva to actually create a 50% decline in the housing market just by saying it will happen. This is too dangerous a possibility to allow to happen in the current global economic crisis.
Minerva should have been stopped sooner, but it is good that he was stopped when he was. There's no telling what he could have done next.
NO
Minerva did not really break any laws. First, while he technically said something false about the Korean government, it is only false in the small details. Minerva said that the government told the 7 major financial agencies and import-export companies to stop buying dollars on December 29 by “sending an urgent official note.” The Korean government denied this immediately, and accused Minerva of spreading false information. However, it has since come to light that the government did in fact tell the 7 major players to stop buying dollars on December 29, but did it verbally at a business meeting. Therefore, while Minerva may have been incorrect about the type of communication used between the government and the private sector, that is not a large enough issue to warrant an arrest.
Even if Minerva did break the Electronic Communication Fundamental Law, the law is unconstitutional. The law is too vague, and also is an attack on free speech and a throwback to Korea's recently dictatorial past. The arrest of Minerva has already stifled freedom of speech in the country, and a conviction could destroy it.
Finally, the real reason why the government arrested Minerva is because he exposed their incompetence and lying by doing a better job at understanding and explaining the economy than they, and by exposing too much information that the government would rather keep quiet. He embarrassed people in positions of power and they have retaliated irrationally against him. The government should release Park Dae-sung and publicly apologize to him for its mistake.
