Gov't, ruling party treat critical papers as criminals

As a newspaperman, I cannot carry the shame of it all. What great sin have the newspapers committed that administration after administration should seek to clamp down on them? What mistake did the papers commit that the ruling party should treat critical papers as if they were criminals, while the opposition party (it's not necessary to cite the Grand National Party by name), which had been able to highlight its own existence because of the newspapers, dances to the ruling party's tune?

There might be a difference in opinion among some, but as newspapermen, we've always been proud that from the colonial period, through the left-right ideological struggles and fratricidal war, political convulsions and military dictators to the era of democratization, we've positively contributed to the formation of the nation and the development of the people's lives. Of course, there are less positive aspects to this. As there is both the good and bad with particular governments or leaderships, so it is with the media of this land. In the final reckoning, however, it is the general understanding of the people that Korea's media has conformed to their interests. Nevertheless, because the papers are criticizing the government, they are being treated like potential criminals.

The newspaper regulations agreed upon by the ruling and opposition parties were basically conceived with the idea of regulating newspaper market shares, which is to say, influence. They limit any one newspaper company to 30 percent market share, and the top three to 60 percent. The media is at heart an animal that lives and dies according to "influence." To instruct newspapers that their influence may not surpass a certain line is indiscretion on the part of a government that doesn't understand the intrinsic nature of the media.

The opposition party seems overjoyed, claiming, "We've made the law virtually impotent by easing some of the ruling party version's more noxious articles," but in fact, those articles were mostly hard to execute, unconstitutional, or ineffective, so one gets the feeling the ruling party simply threw them in there as subjects of compromise. The important thing is that the ruling and opposition parties are cooperating to limit the freedom of the press and block newspapers from growing larger. If this isn't regulating the press, I don't know what is.

Another issue is that the ruling and opposition parties have opportunistically made ill use of the split between newspapers that support and oppose the bill. There were newspaper companies that supported the bill, and others even criticized that the bill that was eventually passed was incomplete. Newspapers can differ in their opinions according to their positions and beliefs. The law, however, was made by the government to advance its own power by creating new spots for particular media. The important thing is not to deal with today's newspaper law from the point of view of how much it will actually interfere in the newspapers' domain, but from the point of view of the bill's complete character and the basic concept in which it was conceived. That is to say, we must judge and evaluate the law from the point of view of whether the bill enhances or helps the freedom of the press, or whether it seeks to regulate and restrain the newspapers.

The Grand National Party's deplorable behavior

During the course of passing this law, the really deplorable thing was the attitude of the Grand National Party (GNP). In their negotiations with the ruling party, the GNP viewed the newspaper bill as the easiest to compromise on, dangling it as bait. The National Security Law was a party line issue dealing with national security, opposition to the private education law was backed by strong lobbying supported by very conservative forces, and the history bill dealt with GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye's father, late President Park Chung-hee, so it appeared as if the GNP ultimately tossed the newspaper bill as compromise bait.

They say that following the confrontation over the National Security Law, the GNP has been patting themselves on the back for a job well done, claiming they won in the negotiations. When we look at it, however, the GNP's opportunistic behavior, seemingly unaware of the gravity of the freedom of the press, has made us bitterly doubtful whether a true opposition party exists in Korea to go along with media critical of the government. Today's opposition party (and previous ones even more so), to put it briefly, owe their existence to newspapers that worked hard to criticize the government and live up to the media spirit. The opposition party that ignored that fact may soon come to regret having cast the vote for the boomerang that will come right back at them.