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In a statement, the Korea News Editor's Association said, "The government should immediately give up its attempt to control the media in the way of the Fifth Republic" - a reference to the putschist government of Chun Doo-hwan. "We understand that the government is working out a prime ministerial directive which will set up a new government office to decide on giving off-the-record briefings and setting news embargoes, and which will ban journalists who fail to attend at least one of five news briefings a week hosted by a ministry from visiting the government office,” it noted.

"This means the government will bring journalists and their employers under control one by one if they violate the government's guidelines in addition to banning media access to government offices,” it added. "A news embargo is purely a gentleman's agreement based on mutual trust between news sources and reporters. But the government wishes to decide on this arbitrarily and take disciplinary action against journalists and their companies unless they abide by government guidelines. This is an autocratic idea aimed at determining when media companies should report specific issues."

The government is attempting to legalize such media control by the expedient of a prime ministerial directive. This, the association argued, was “an anti-democratic outrage no democratic government in the world has ever attempted.” It called on the government to abandon its attempt to ban media access to information sources.

The opposition Grand National Party also urged the government to drop its press policy, which it said "clearly shows the government's new attempt to rein in the media." GNP spokeswoman Na Kyung-won echoed the association, saying it should be “up to journalists whether to embargo news in case government offices ask for it.” She warned there was a danger that the press policy “may be abused as a means to control the media,” citing the precedent of press guidelines under past authoritarian governments.

In the face of the protests, the GIA said, "We will make sure that no government offices set news embargoes arbitrarily. To assure fairness, it will not be individual government offices but a council of government offices, consisting of public relations officers from each government office who will discuss what disadvantages individual journalists and their companies should face as a result of the news embargo. ” It also promised to give journalists and their employers an opportunity to explain themselves.

(englishnews@chosun.com )