SEOUL - A popular blogger vowed Tuesday to keep commenting on South Korea's economy after a court cleared him of a charge of spreading false financial rumours.
Park Dae-sung, 30 -- better known by his Internet alias "Minerva" -- was arrested in early January and kept in custody pending his trial.
He was charged with spreading online rumours that the government in late December had ordered local banks not to buy dollars, as part of efforts to stabilise the won.
Park walked free Monday after the court found him not guilty, although prosecutors said they would appeal.
"I plan to write as much as I can. I'm grateful for having been proved innocent and released," a triumphant Park told journalists.
"Freedom of speech must be protected on the Internet as well.... If state power intervenes to curb it, democracy that guarantees differences of opinion will suffer."
Park had argued that his online comments were intended to alert individual investors and help small business owners.
He gained fame with postings that predicted the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September and the won's sharp depreciation.
But his writings irritated authorities with their sharp criticism of the government's economic policy and of its interventions in the foreign exchange market.
Asked how he sees the current state of the economy, Park warned of possible inflation sparked by an oversupply of liquidity to counter the credit crunch.
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