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The Roh Moo-hyun administration's press policy is bankrupt. While it is still in power, the government may merge the press rooms in government agencies into just a handful of high-tech press centers under the grandiose pretext of "advanced news coverage support¡±, but the policy¡¯s days are numbered.
First, it has no supporters. Even the Uri Party, which used to be pro-Roh until three months ago, is saying it can¡¯t agree. Everyone in politics except a few die-hard Roh supporters has turned their back on the president in this matter. It is reminiscent of the summer of 2005, when Roh proposed a grand coalition with the Grand National Party, and of early this year when he suggested changing the presidential term in office. He tried every means available to make these two ideas happen but had to back down in the face of strong opposition. The Roh administration¡¯s press policy is worse than the last two fiascos. In the previous two cases, the administration had some room for sophistry, but in this case it has no justification whatsoever.
Second, it has become very clear why the Roh administration is so pertinacious about the press issue. Everybody has come to understand its motives and intentions. Testimony has come mainly from former Roh mouthpieces. Democratic Party Rep. Lee Nak-yon, respective spokesmen for then candidate Roh Moo-hyun during the 2002 presidential election and for the Transition Committee for then president-elect Roh in 2003, and DP spokesman Yoo Jong-pil said he always had an obsession that he is a victim of the press, and can¡¯t hide his hostility toward outlets that are critical of him. They used the expression "retaliation.¡± But in retrospect, Roh has benefited from the press more than any other politicians in our time, from 1988, when he hogged the limelight as a star panelist during a public hearing that was telecast live, all the way to the 2002 presidential election.
A government evaluation forum that has recently set itself up as the royal guard of the Roh administration has pledged to improve a sorry situation where, it feels, the government¡¯s achievements are not being given due credit in the media due to a press ¡°monopoly¡± on public opinion. Do we need more evidence of the persecution complex the Roh administration is suffering from?
Third, the ongoing commotion won't last long. All presidential contenders in all political groups both in the ruling and opposition camps, including the GNP and the Uri Party, are vowing to correct this government¡¯s press policy if they are elected. Even if the new combined briefing rooms in government agencies open in August as scheduled, they will last only six months.
Fourth, there is a more basic issue. The press is not without its flaws and makes minor or major mistakes almost every day ? that is in the nature of the news media. But to the eyes of this reporter, who started his journalistic career in the late 1980s, the country's press has progressed in step with democracy and has improved its self-corrective mechanisms apace. I believe the country's press has come to justify the case for press freedom, a basic element of democracy. Such a pillar of the community should not be recklessly shaken by a lame-duck president.
Roh should back down: it is the call of reason and common sense. But everyone knows he won¡¯t do so willingly. This is the lesson the public has learned from watching Roh over the past five years, seeing how bigoted he is in his own opinions and principles and how stubbornly he sticks to his own ideas. The latest incident could cause people to give up any last hopes they may have pinned on Roh and his government. A government that made war on the press its top priority has only itself to blame for the tragedy.
The column was contributed by Chosun Ilbo associate political editor Park Doo-sik.
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