The deputy director at the Government Information Agency, Cheong Sun-kyun, who used to be a reporter at the JoongAng Ilbo, harshly attacked the Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and Dong-a Ilbo during a speech Saturday to 30 high-ranking officials of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office.

Cheong said that the domestic media market was almost monopolized by the three newspapers. These newspapers report news in the same way, and thereby fix public opinion, preventing the formation of normal public opinion, he said.

He took issue with the Chosun Ilbo's critical editorials about Roh Moo-hyun's recent visit to Japan, saying that the paper hastily presumed that the summit in Tokyo was a failure.

He also complained that all three newspapers had reported a claim by the opposition lawmaker Kang Seong-ku, who said that fools always blame the media, and called the quote and subsequent reporting "coordinated."

"This is evidence that whenever they find a story that fits their ideas they all carry it, as if uniformly," he said.

Cheong also went on to support the government's program to classify news reports about government agencies into categories, including "erroneous" and "distorted."

After his speech, Cheong told this reporter that it was his fourth such speech to high-ranking officials, following earlier ones to officials of Cheong Wa Dae, the National Tax Service and the National Police Agency. He said he tells all the officials that when they read the major newpapers they should read between the lines, because sometimes hidden intentions are included and can be discernible in the articles.

(Park Se-yong, se@chosun.com )