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PRESS RELEASE
For immediate releaseContact: Dann Gaymer, Communications DirectorMobile: 010-2335-4999, media@atek.or.krThe Association for Teachers of English in Koreawww.atek.or.kr/ (2009 Nov 13) ATEK: Naver Should Pull the Plug on the Anti English SpectrumThe Association for Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) is pledging support to recentcalls for NHN, the parent company of Naver.com, to take action against the onlinecommunity of the Anti English Spectrum (AES), a race hate group that advocatesvigilante tactics against foreign teachers that operates on Naver.com.Letters were posted to the NHN Corporation, both in Korea and in Irvine, California,where the company's US branch is located. In the letters, written by Andrea Vandom, aPhD student in International Relations at the University of California, it is explained thatthe racist material on the Anti English Spectrum's page violates Naver's user agreement.On the page it is suggested that AIDS infected foreign teachers are purposely spreadingthe disease, while molesting children, raping Korean woman and consuming largequantities of narcotics. These accusations have also been printed onto calling cards anddistributed on streets of Seoul.In her letters to the NHN Corporation, Vandom stated:"This group’s highly defamatory statements violate Article Ga-4 (Defamatory Posts) of Naver cafe’s terms of service agreement and rise to the level of violations of the Koreancriminal code."Vandom also pointed out that Article 4 of the International Convention on theElimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which the Republic of Korea fully supports, states that the promotion of racial hatred, such as in posters used bythe Anti English Spectrum on their Naver page, is illegal. By hosting these posters Naveris in effect assisting racist activities, which under Article 4(a) of the ICERD, is an offensethat Korea has declared "punishable by law".With regards to the letter's Vandom mailed to NHN, ATEK president Greg Dolezal stated,"The Anti English Spectrum is attempting to sabotage multiculturalism in Korea withtheir xenophobic accusations that are aimed at foreign English teachers who are innocentof the crimes the group describes."Despite the implausibility of the group's claims Dolezal stressed,
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