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The International Press Institute in a statement Thursday welcomed President Lee Myung-bak's press policy, which seems set on reversing five years of hostility to the news media. The IPI is a global organization of media executives, leading journalists, editors and reporters in over 120 countries.
It welcomes "President Lee Myung-bak¡¯s recently-voiced promise to embrace a 'press-friendly policy'" and invites him ¡°to go further by implementing much-needed legal reforms in South Korea."
"Since its inauguration in February 2008, President Lee Myung-bak¡¯s administration has instituted several positive changes in the country¡¯s media environment,¡± it says. "For example, press dispatch rooms closed during the previous administration have been reopened during the past two months.¡±
In 2007, IPI sent four open letters to the Roh Moo-hyun administration, urging it to cancel draconian press controls. The same year, the IPI considered placing South Korea on a Watch List for its suppression of press freedom but decided to wait until after the presidential election, considering that major presidential candidates pledged to reverse the Roh administration's policy.
"However, challenges to press freedom remain" in South Korea, the IPI notes. The Newspaper Law and Press Arbitration Law ¡°which IPI has repeatedly criticized as unduly restrictive in the past, remain in force."
IPI Director David Dadge added, "We warmly welcome President [Lee¡¯s] commitment to improve relations with the media by removing some of the previously-imposed impediments to press freedom and invite him to make the necessary changes to all laws that restrict press freedom and access to information in the country."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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