Snapshot of Camera Phones to Report Illegal Election Campaign

Snapshot of Camera Phones to Report Illegal Election Campaign. February. 27, 2004 22:27. by Tae-Han Kim freewill@donga.com.

To keep watch and ward off illegal election campaigns, surveillance system using camera phones will be introduced in the April 15 general elections for the first time.

The National Election Commission (NEC) will run a hotline center around March 15 and camera phone owners can report any illegal activities by taking snaps of the actual scene.

According to one mobile internet service on Friday, NEC plans to make this coming election the cleanest and the most impartial one in Korea’s general election history by operating a mobile internet service called “415 Mobile Station” that receives reports of illegal election campaigns from cell phone holders.

If this hotline center is put into operation, camera phone owners can take pictures of the illegal election campaign on the spot with their cell phones and report them to the NEC’s mobile internet homepage immediately.

If NEC sends the reported content to the mobile phone of the supervisor in charge, the indicated scene will be checked or investigated.

With this system, NEC expects a considerable decrease in illegal activities such as illegal election campaign of certain candidates and any bribes. In addition to the visual material from cell phones, the call center can accept text messages and also provides information of the candidates by electoral districts.

KTF, a supporter of NEC’s mobile service, will make a menu button in the front menu page of the wireless internet so that phone users can easily connect themselves to the service and also plans to provide a “Hot Number” function that enables direct connection to the hotline just by entering 5-digit numbers.

A person from the mobile phone business said, “Currently, 34 million people subscribe to mobile telephones in Korea, and six million camera phones are in use. I believe cell phones make considerable contribution toward a cleaner election environment.”