3 Reporters Nabbed for Bugging Police Meeting
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Three reporters of a news agency based in Gyeonggi Province were caught after they allegedly bugged a senior police officials' meeting, police said Friday. Two of the three were taken into custody.
The Gyeonggi Police Agency said the reporters from Asia News Agency installed an MP3 player with recording function on the ceiling of a restaurant in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, where National Police Agency Commissioner Kang Hee-rak was hosting a banquet Thursday for nearly 40 senior police officers in the province.
The event was held after Kang's regular inspection of police stations there, police said.
Choi Won-il, who was at the banquet, said, ``At around 8:20, a restaurant employee informed me that a couple of people with suspicious gadgets had dropped by the restaurant before the dinner began.''
Choi and restaurant employees searched the venue and found a recorder attached to the ceiling.
Police found a picture of one of the reporters saved on the gadget. During questioning, the journalist confessed to having installed the recorder with two other colleagues.
The three said they were attempting to record senior police officers' speaking about recent police-related issues such as their handling of people mourning the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun and the blockade of Seoul plaza that was lifted Thursday.