The Hankyoreh marks 18th anniversary today
The Hankyoreh celebrates its anniversary today, 18 years after starting as a small 8-page daily. The country had become disgusted with a media distorted by government control, and desired to have a newspaper that would be the eyes and ears of the people. The 1987 presidential election took place while we were still preparing for our first official edition. Pro-democracy forces split during that election, and by doing so extended the country's rule by authoritarian elements. The yearning for true democracy and a world of unity instantly turned into a bottomless sense of frustration, and it was at that time that the Hankyoreh sought to embrace the tired people with the slogan, "Democracy is not going to be won in a single contest." Today, on the occasion of our 18th anniversary, a time when there are difficulties in so many areas of our society, we reflect on what that slogan means. The events that are center stage in Daechu-ri are, at many complex levels, representative of the problems the country faces. They are the amalgamation of the contradictions in our society. Ever since Qing's Yuan Shikai stationed Chinese troops at Yongsan, in Seoul, the existence of foreign troops has been a symbol of the shame and remorse of modern Korean history. It is clearly a development for the better to have foreign troops moved out of the very center of the capital. "Strategic flexibility" is part of the global reorganization of the United States military, and the whole issue brings apprehension about the status and future role of the United States Forces Korea (USFK). But even if you forget about the U.S., the activities of other hegemonic states in the region are cause for concern. Intra-Korean relations are at a standstill, despite the rapid increase in non-governmental exchange and the test running of cross-border land links. Unless there is composed and substantive popular debate about issues such as intra-Korean reconciliation and the direction toward a unified Korea, the country will be unable to fundamentally resolve the conflict that has been projected on Daechu-ri.All you have to look at is the problem of socioeconomic disparity to see at how low a level of advancement our society is. There is a lot of rhetoric thrown around on the issue, but there has yet to be a decent policy to deal with it. We have made a great amount of progress in political and procedural democratization, but that does not mean the lives of the tired common people have changed very much. Anxieties about employment and maintaining livelihood, something common for all age groups amid the heavy wave of globalization, have destroyed ties within the labor community and incited conflict. If you think of the difficult problems ahead, such as the friction between Korea and Japan over historical issues, the poor conditions faced by migrant workers, the issue of South Korean POWs and abductees in North Korea, the destruction of the environment because of indiscriminate development, and the absence of ethics as revealed through the Hwang Woo-suk affair, it is clear we need to remain focused on how to go about achieving peace and mutual prosperity. Conflicting interests between nations and the friction and clash of interests between social classes and groups are serious and will be hard to find valid solutions for, but determining which related issues are the most important and then creating formats for dialogue and communication for composed public discussion will not be impossible. That will require that the media, and newspapers in particular, fulfill their roles as social institutions. Many of Korea's conservative papers, however, miss the mark by a long shot. Instead of acknowledging the existence of those with differing views and trying to persuade them with rational logic, they unilaterally shower the public with their own views, and their vulgar behavior is only getting worse. It is as if the highest standard for which to judge the value of a story is how it serves their partisan interests. It is self-evident that the obstinate papers that think their readers and the country are fools will end up destroying themselves. In a 2004 survey by the Korea Press Foundation, 49.8 percent of respondents said they trusted television, 1.4 points higher than a similar survey two years ago, while public confidence in newspapers actually dropped. Confidence in newspapers was 18.8 percent, 1.1 points less than in 2004. When it comes to particularly notable events that all news media report on simultaneously, 62.2 percent of respondents said they trust television, while only 16.1 percent trust newspapers, trusted less than the internet (16.3%). When we declared our "second founding" last year, we promised to prepare for the era of reunification, wisely resolve social conflict, and have more communication with our readers. Beginning this year we have had a completely independent "citizen editors" program that serves to see whether we have lost our focus from when we first started publishing. Also, experts from various fields have been searching for rational answers to major issues. We must confess, however, that the Hankyoreh is still inadequate in many ways. If newspapers are going to recover the public's confidence, they need to be a properly functioning window to the world. Newspapers are nothing but houses of cards if the public cannot have confidence in news reports and opinion pieces. We reject partisan journalism and the lack of ethics and reason it brings, and will work to promote fairness and public confidence. We solemnly promise to devote ourselves to providing depth of information and unbiased commentary so that the belief remains that the world is transparent when seen through the window of the Hankyoreh.
