Samsung has more media control than government: union leader

Headquarters of Samsung Electronics, a giant based in Korea.

High ad revenues dictate media content, he says

“Cheong Wa Dae [the presidential office] can't retract an article, but Samsung can.”

The words are those of Ahn Chul-heung, the union leader at weekly magazine Sisa Journal, in a July 31 meeting held in the wake of a retraction of an article from that journal about corruption at Samsung.

Citing the magazine’s own data, Ahn said Samsung Group’s advertising spending accounted for about 8 percent of ad sales of the 14 major local broadcasting and newspaper companies in 2004. “If Samsung stops providing ads, the media market will tumble,” Ahn said. “Last year, when a special edition of Sisa Journal on Samsung Group was published, Samsung’s affiliates stopped offering ads for a while,” he said.

Ahn said, “While companies don’t exert [direct] pressure, there are some material grounds on which reporters approach their articles with more caution.” Ahn said reporters go through a number of internal conflicts when writing articles about Samsung, wondering, “is this an article that can really be published?”

As a result, articles critical of Samsung, which holds assets worth 70 trillion won (70 billion USD), have been disappearing from major newspapers, Ahn said. “We should rethink whether this trend is useful for our society and Samsung.”

Another speaker at the meeting, Yang Moon-seok, secretary general of the People’s Coalition for Media Reform, said Samsung Group spent 53.9 billion won on advertising for Munwha Broadcasting Corp. in 2004, followed by SBS (55 billion won), KBS (51.1 billion won), JoongAng Ilbo (12.5 billion won), Chosun Ilbo (11.9 billion won), Dong-a Ilbo (11.8 billion won), and Hankook Ilbo (9.5 billion won).

Yang added that the ad spending by Samsung accounted for 17.1 percent of ads sold by Seoul Shinmun, 16.7 percent of the advertising revenue at Kyunghyang Shinmun, and 15.1 percent at the Munhwa Ilbo. “For minor newspapers, the ratio of Samsung’s ad revenue is high,” Yang said.