The Gatekeepers of Knowledge and Disinformation

When the state decides what one cannot see, hear or say, we have clearly not learned from the history we are trying to erase.


Cases in point:

The unification ministry held a hearing Monday to give two North Korean defector groups a final chance to explain themselves before going ahead with a decision to revoke their operation permits for sending propaganda leaflets into the North.

The hearing came weeks after the ministry decided to file a criminal complaint with police against Fighters for a Free North Korea and Kuensaem and revoke their business permits for their sending of leaflets into the North.

"The hearing to be held on Monday is intended to hear their explanations," a ministry official said. "It is a procedure that should be carried out before taking any measure of revoking permits granted to such civic groups."

If their permits are revoked, donors for the activist groups will not be eligible for various tax benefits. Observers see the hearing as a perfunctory step before revoking their operations permits.

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Canada, the United States and democracies around the world have lessons to share and plenty more to learn in what federal cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc said Monday must be a collective, global effort to fight the scourge of online disinformation.

(Sidebar: like Justin was directly responsible for handing out $900 million to the WE charity and that Toronto mayor John Tory used an old photo of his city to hide the damage done by rioters? Like that disinformation?)