Posted on 04/20/2003 12:52:59 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
PRESS RELEASE/ALERT: Media organisations express concern over government's new press policy
Originator: International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
Date: 2003-04-17 Country: SOUTH KOREA Person(s): Target(s): Source: IFJ Type(s) of violation(s):
(IPI/IFEX) - The following is an IPI update on the latest press freedom developments in South Korea, which has been on the IPI Watch List since 6 September 2001:
At a meeting of government agency spokesmen held on 27 March 2003, the South Korean government adopted a new press policy, dubbed "How to Operate Press Rooms".
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A spokesman for the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) said that the Roh administration was overreacting to occasional false reports, and claimed that the new administration's media policies seem designed to "directly or indirectly seize and tame" the media. He said that the new system looked like it was opening doors, but actually restricted media coverage. The GNP translated the formal name for the new guidelines as the "Public-Relations Operation Plan". It also warned that restricting office visits and interviews through public relations officers would weaken the function of the press to investigate or criticize. Furthermore, if the interviewed officer must report to the public-relations officer this in effect would mean that all government employees would be unable to talk to the press. And it also makes it impossible for the media to maintain its right to protect confidential sources.
/snip
Unfortunately, this media situation has some additional "unpleasant" perspectives:
* The nomination of a new chief at the state-funded television network KBS. At the end of March, the network's union came out against the appointment of Seo Dong-ku as new president of the network, since he was a former media counsel of President Roh Moo-hyun's presidential campaign. The union foresaw "a problem with political neutrality".
* The activities of political movements under the guise of civic movements. The supporters club of President Roh Moo-hyun, called "Nosamo" (People Who Love Roh Moo-hyun), sought an alliance with another organisation, called "Choase" (A Beautiful World Without the Chosun Ilbo Newspaper). One of the manifestos of this group reads: "Because an attack on a number of dailies would be ineffective, we consented to what is called 'killing only one'."
Two cult figures of the groups, actors Myung Gye-nam and Moon Song-gun, have now initiated another organisation, an Internet civic movement, called "The People's Strength", a self-styled politics network declared as "an organization of warriors formed with genuine membership".
A hard-core group of these organisations has now created what they call "a gangster media destruction team". The media companies they want to see toppled are the main independent dailies, the Chosun Ilbo, the DongA Ilbo and the JoongAng Ilbo. On the surface they say it is because these newspapers distort the truth, but their real reason is that these newspapers are too influential and not pro-government. They organise boycotts of interviews, discourage people from subscribing and try to initiate advertising boycotts.
On 1 March, approximately 200 members of these groups dragged a large crane to the front gate of the Independence Hall Museum in Cheonan and made a show of trying to drag out the antique rotary press machine of the Chosun Ilbo, while shouting slogans disparaging the newspaper. Ultimately the pressure exerted by the activists seemed to be too much for the museum and, on 17 March, it was decided that the Chosun Ilbo's old press machine, which has been housed in the museum since 1987, would be removed because of demands by activists opposed to the daily.
Chosun Ilbo wrote in a column, "If you don't like something in a democratic society, you can ignore it. But if you insist that an idea you don't like must be crushed, you're out of line. That's going way beyond criticism."
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(Excerpt) Read more at ifex.org ...
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