Koreans are now on the path toward an advanced democracy with good qualities in terms of the rule of law, political freedom and civil liberties, electoral and interinstitutional accountability, responsiveness of representatives, human security, effective administration, transparency and control of corruption, active political participation of citizens, and equality. Recently, however, many have spoken of a retreat of democracy in South Korea. They identify this retreat in the area of political freedom and civil liberties, especially freedom of speech and freedom of expression, which have been seriously transgressed by the two consecutive conservative governments of Lee Myung Bak and Park Geun Hye. With regard to those two basic freedoms, South Korea under the Lee and Park governments was classified as a “partly free” country by Freedom House and Reporters without Borders.