The Chosun Ilbo has filed a petition with the Constitutional Court claiming that the newspaper law and press arbitration law are unconstitutional. As a party with a direct interest in the matter you cannot blame that newspaper for filing a constitutional petition. The DongA Ilbo did the same last March. The Chosun Ilbo's actions, however, are too much to overlook. It spent three whole pages describing the petition and its position on the issue. That kind of coverage makes you realize what massive power it wields.
Even more shocking is the Chosun Ilbo's argument. The newspaper law that defines the "social responsibility of periodicals," according to the Chosun, fully resembles the "Basic Press Law" that the military dictatorship of Chun Doo Hwan used to suppress the media. Even today there are many people who lost their jobs as reporters for fighting the dictatorship, and some among them were fired from the Chosun. Twenty years later it still ignores their demands for an apology, and so for it to compare the situation now to that of the Chun years is an absurdity and blasphemy against history that must not be left unchallenged. And is not the Chosun one of the few newspapers that benefited during the Chun era?
It is of course not ideal to have the government regulate press activity by law. The freedom of the press must not be infringed, and the media should rightly work on its own to bear its social responsibilities. That does not happen in Korea's situation. The newspapers that have a hold on the sales network and tempt readers with all sorts of expensive gifts say "newspapers with the most readers are the best newspapers." Basically, the newspaper law seeks to improve the situation and guarantee diversity in the media, and is the result of the work groups in civil society. What the media in this land needs right now is humble reflection on what it did that now requires a legal definition of the social responsibility of the media.
The Hankyoreh, 11 June 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Like the Chun Dictatorship's Coercion of the Press? |
