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A Cabinet meeting chaired by President Roh Moo-hyun on Tuesday decided to merge 37 press rooms in government agencies into a handful of briefing rooms at the government complexes in central Seoul, Gwacheon and Daejeon. As a result, up to 16 agencies will use one of the press rooms to brief reporters on government policy. The government will start constructing the new briefing rooms at the end of June and have them operating in August. The government said it will come up with strong measures to keep reporters from entering the government offices.
If government briefings were substantial, it wouldn¡¯t matter how many briefing rooms there are. But the briefing system that began with the launch of this administration to replace press rooms gained a reputation long ago for lacking any newsworthy content. One media scholar pointed out in a report in February that the briefing system ¡°serves the purposes of the government rather than the public¡¯s right to know,¡± while there were too many briefings by government branches to show off their performance. Even if reporters do not show up to these briefings, where ministers and vice ministers simply read aloud what¡¯s written in press releases, many government officials hold those events anyway simply because they will appear on the government-run KTV cable network, which the president reportedly watches often.
Many government officials blatantly hide the truth, refuse to confirm certain facts and, when a reporter starts probing, alert higher officials in order to conceal information. This administration, in particular, searches for the officials responsible for divulging information whenever a particular fact is reported by a particular newspaper. It demands that officials submit written accounts of what happened whenever they either contribute a piece of writing to a newspaper or are interviewed by one. Under such circumstances, narrowing the channels of information down to three briefing rooms and strictly preventing reporters from contacting government officials is tantamount to raising fences to block the public from looking inside. And at the same time, the government is seeking to publicize only the information that suits its taste.
Almost all of the political parties, presidential hopefuls and civic groups are criticizing the government¡¯s move. The reason those people are united in their opposition to the move means it will disappear as soon as this administration ends its term. Former Uri Party chief Chung Dong-young said, ¡°It is a waste of national resources to rush ahead with such a measure that will last no more than six months.¡± This is obvious to anyone.
What triggered all this was the president¡¯s comment that a few reporters were ¡°just sitting around press rooms¡¦¡± Even though those comments were based on ignorance of reporting, the president is stubbornly pushing through with his plan. This is not a policy designed with the public¡¯s interest in mind, but a personal vendetta by the president. If he must push through with the construction of the combined briefing rooms, then he should pay for it with his own money. The public did not pay taxes so the president can use them on projects to vent his anger.
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