[Editorial] Are The Abuses Unique to the JoongAng Ilbo?

The comments of the president of a major daily newspaper on an illegal intelligence agency surveillance tape are so vile they shame the conspiracies found in popular novels involving corporate crime. He was not only advising a presidential candidate, he played delivery boy for illegal financial contributions and then gave the opposing candidate illegal contributions, too, just as insurance. Presidential elections are supposed to be decided by the sacred judgment of the people, but he mobilized his editors to manipulate the campaign. Instead of producing his newspaper to help voters and readers make fair choices, he was using his paper as a private tool for making his candidate the president.

The high-handedness of the men who head newspapers is well known within the industry, but rarely has such a lively example been exposed to the public, because the world they operate in is hidden from view. The problem of the tyranny of newspaper publishers is surely not a problem unique to the JoongAng Ilbo. On the tape recording it is decided that the newspaper will emphasize perceived shortcomings in Kim Dae Jung in order to prevent him from wining the Korean presidency, and indeed the publications operated by that newspaper all appear to have followed his directions. He was so powerful during the days of authoritarian governments he was called the "president of the night."

Though it should be perfectly clear, freedom of the press does not mean freedom for the publisher. It is very regrettable that the dirty behavior of the head of the JoongAng Ilbo ended up being exposed on an illegal eavesdropping tape, but one would hope that on this occasion the cliquish and old establishment newspapers and the Grand National Party (GNP) would stop their wrongful attack on the newspaper law that takes effect on July 28. The Newspaper and Broadcasting Editors Association says the law is a means of controlling the press, of taming the media to the government's liking, but we call on those who share in that criticism to stop and think about who it has been who has trampled on and perverted press freedoms.

The Hankyoreh, 25 July 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]