ed Blue House and KBS

If every cloud has a silver lining, it is hoped that in the aftermath of the recent ferry disaster various chronic ills in Korea will be cured. And few things are more urgent in this regard than ending government control of the media.

A former newsroom chief of KBS revealed last week that Cheong Wa Dae has frequently intervened in the making and airing of news programs, directly or indirectly through the head of the public broadcaster appointed by President Park Geun-hye.

For example, the Blue House asked KBS to refrain from criticizing the Coast Guard while the search and salvage operation continues; to play down the state spy agency’s fabrication of evidence to frame a defector as a spy for North Korea; to play up the recent subway collision in Seoul ― whose mayor is from the main opposition party ― in the run-up to the local elections; and not to pursue extensive coverage of a sexual assault case last year involving former Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Yoon Chang-jung.

If true ― and it must be true given the whistleblower’s position until very recently and the details of episodes ― it is as if Koreans are re-living the 1970s and ’80s when military dictators controlled, or ``coordinated” in their own expression, the media industry.

Now viewers can understand why KBS President Gil Hwan-young, who even refused to meet bereaved families who visited the network’s headquarters demanding an apology for the belittling of the ferry tragedy by one of his staff, rushed and apologized to them staging a sit-in in front of Cheong Wa Dae.

Gil is still sticking to his post, although all of the KBS news editors and senior reporters have offered to resign unless he steps down. Or, it may be a small surprise that Gil, named by President Park, will be able to quit only when his appointer nods her approval.

Cheong Wa Dae’s ``media play” seems to explain in part why Koreans, especially members of the bereaved families, cannot find much sincerity in President Park’s repeated expression of regrets and apologies. The president will announce a statement and issue her ``fifth” apology today for the worst maritime catastrophe in decades, but it is not certain whether and how much it will help to turn around popular sentiments against the unsympathetic leader and her administration bent mainly on political calculations.

Only last week, the president named one of her former campaign workers as head of the Korea Communications Standards Commission, a reviewing agency of broadcasting programs, while filling two vacancies with former prosecutors specialized in national security. They have neither expertise nor experience of broadcasting or communications, and are nothing but Park’s ideological sentries.

Freedom House ranked Korea 68th for press freedom, down four notches from 2013, keeping it in the group of countries where freedom of speech is only ``partially” free. Considering the realities confronting the domestic media, even that seems to be too generous.