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This government¡¯s antagonism toward the press has led to the country¡¯s embarrassment. The second in command at the Government Information Service has contributed a piece to the Asian Wall Street Journal in which he lambastes and insults Korea¡¯s news media. His comments are full of distortions and exaggerations that are so primitive it makes your face turn red to read it.
He begins by saying that many Korean journalists have a tendency to not check basic facts, and that 80 percent of the corrections and rebuttals submitted by the government through the relevant arbitration system are accepted. But he is surely well aware of the fact that rebuttals are almost always permitted, just to guarantee the right of rebuttal, regardless of the accuracy of the article in question.
The number of articles the government has taken issue with since it assumed power remains in the double digits, this out of the tens of thousands that have been produced during that time. To still make such claims is a clear example of distortion and exaggeration, with no confirmation of the fundamental facts.
He also wrote that people in the government entertain reporters with drinks and dining, and that they regularly handed out money envelopes. Later he presented the explanation that ¡°I was saying that used to happen under previous governments.¡± This government is so sensitive about its own reputation that the president himself engages in a lawsuit, then indiscriminately harms the reputation of other people in other vocations.
You can¡¯t say reporters don¡¯t accept money envelopes anymore, but the habit has decreased significantly. And it¡¯s true that there are media companies of various forms that don¡¯t really pay their people or where wages aren¡¯t enough on which to maintain a livelihood. Having once worked in the business himself, the deputy director of the Government Information Service surely knows that news outlets that do not imitate the wrongs of the reporters of certain news companies must not be held responsible for such wrongful behavior.
You get the sense this whole approach can be understood in the context recent comments uttered in the presence of the president by the director of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, Choe Yeong-jin. Choi insulted journalists by saying it¡¯s as if the role of an information officer at government agencies is to ¡°buy drinks for reporters.¡± So is winning the heart of the man who makes appointments all that matters, even if you are criticized by everyone else in the short run?
The Government Information Service operates on the people¡¯s taxes. Since when has it become an agency that embarrasses the country, speaks for the current government and criticizes the press? The situation today has gotten to the point at which we can look the other way no longer.
Aug. 25, 2003
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