N3Mag - AAJA
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SOUTH KOREA
Korean press still struggles
against deep roots of corruption
New media selling points are emotion and opinions
rather than facts and analyses.
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Story by Jane Kim
Photo courtesy Yonhap News via Bloomberg
Edited by Frances Fernandes and Elaine Ramirez
Ever since the Park Chung-hee administration of the 1960s and ‘70s,
South Korea’s mainstream media has exhibited propagandistic manipulation, ranging from corrupt ties with businesses and politicians to
deliberately falsified reporting.
Park funded the newspaper Chosun Ilbo, now the top conserva-
Social media for bypassing suppression
tive daily, and also instituted laws that enabled government officials
The internet is allowing a diversity of independent voices to thrive.
to appoint executives of nationally owned broadcast outlets. Today,
Guk Beom-geun, a student at the progressive SungKongHoe Universi-
most mainstream broadcasters and newspapers remain under the
ty, started G-Pictures when he was in high school. He is featured on his
conservative political party’s grips.
media channel as a candid political commentator, garnering 45,000
Decades after the authoritarian regime instilled favoritism
and media control, media-politicking retains a grip on most
YouTube followers and more than 73,000 Facebook fans.
Some see a positive in this development. The recent boost in
Korean media to this day, said Ahn Soo-chan, chief editor of the
citizens’ awareness level presents a brighter outlook for the nation,
progressive, opposition weekly newsmagazine Hankyoreh21.
said journalist and author Daniel Tudor: “A positive outcome of the
Park scandal is it is creating an opportunity to move on from Park
Longstanding media censorship
Chung-hee.”
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2016 found that 54 per-
The massive citizen demonstrations over the Park scandal
cent of Koreans do not think that “the news media of their country
have caught the attention of politicians, wrote SungKongHoe Uni-
is independent from undue political or government influence
versity political science professor and columnist Kim Dong-choon.
most of the time.” Korea, the U.S. and Malaysia emerge as the
He saw the public outcry as a sign that Korea is undergoing an
only countries with half or more of the nation distrustful of their
unprecedented, highly critical time in history.
media.
The Park Geun-hye scandal exemplified corruption in Korean
Although Guk admitted to having political biases, he said he
is concerned that the proliferation of alternative media may lead to
mainstream news providers. Choi Soon-sil, accused of master-
greater political polarization. “(It’s) seeing what you want and believ-
minding governmental policy and decision making during Park’s
ing what you want,” he said.
administration, ordered a defamation indictment of Japanese
These are inherent problems with the new media, said Ahn of
journalist Tatsuya Kato, Seoul bureau chief of Sankei Shimbun,
Hankyoreh21. “Their selling points are emotion and opinionated
for reporting an alleged, secret, seven-hour meeting between
argument rather than facts and analyses.”
President Park, Chung Yoon-hoi and Choi after the sinking of the
Because of its very accessibility, he said, “there is no filtration
Sewol ferry. Chung, Choi’s ex-husband, is accused of blackmailing
to ensure the reliance of these sources … unlike the research and
a private media outlet to suppress documentation of the apparent
fact-checking that certified corporations can afford to filter their
intervention in governmental affairs.
materials through.”
In 2012, a group of veteran journalists launched The Korea
Chungnam University professor Kim Jae-young, who was
Center for Investigative Journalism, the first, online, nonprofit,
jailed as a student activist during Chun Doo-hwan’s authoritarian
investigative reporting organization in South Korea. The center,
regime, doesn’t see much difference between “the repetitive pro-
which runs the website Newstapa, delved into illicit activity in the
jections for elections” in 2012 and today.
Park campaign and Twitter abuse of campaign workers for today’s
presidential front-runner Moon Jae-in. Park affiliates were convict-
The internet’s impact on politics is a “double-edged sword,
indeed,” said Kim.
ed of spreading libelous Twitter claims and rumors. More recently,
Newstapa revealed that Moon’s camp rehired the same people
Jane Kim can be reached at-
convicted for the Twitter incident four years ago.
New. Now. Next Media Conference
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May 19-21, 2017
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