|
President Roh Moo-hyun in a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Newspapers Congress in Seoul said Monday, "If newspapers slanted to the values or interests of a particular controlling group dominate the market, the interests of the socially weak have no ground to stand on." He added that because such newspapers ¡°exercise enormous influence, it would not be an exaggeration to call them a power.¡± Therefore, ¡°it is important for the media to have democratic control structures as an instrumental mechanism that can hold the misuse of media authority in check."
The president may have believed that to be an expression of the universal principles of the press. But international journalists put two and two together and made the connection with the situation the Korean press faces today. Various measures this government has been taking against critical newspapers, visible and invisible, accurately translate these views of the president into action - and no international observer can understand the perception that mass circulation papers are "slanted to the values or interests of a particular controlling group" and do not take the interests of the weak into consideration.
The acting chairman of the World Newspaper Congress Gavin O¡¯Reilly was quick to point out that South Korea has yet to secure complete freedom of the press. Noting that Korea's Newspaper Laws seek to restrict the market share any one newspaper is allowed, he rather delicately pointed out that limiting the freedom of readers to subscribe to whatever newspaper they want is ¡°not something that is prevalent anywhere else in the democratic world.¡±
On one side you have the president, worrying about the misuse of media authority and stressing the need for "institutional mechanisms" to hold it in check. On the other side you have the world press, which finds Korea's press freedom wanting.
President Roh had a dire warning for the press. "If newspapers express distrust and hatred, society may be plunged into confrontation and conflict." One wonders how that went down with the world¡¯s journalists, calling the media's criticism of power "distrust and hatred", and shifting the blame for social ills to the press. If our society suffers from conflicts and confrontation, it is not the press but the ruling force that is responsible for them, ¡°slanted¡± as it is to a particular ideology, and robbing the country¡¯s diversity of values and voices of ground to stand on.
|
