Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
Investigative body accused of searching through phone records of journalists
Kim Jin-wook, the chief of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials, enters the office in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Nov. 16. Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
The state-run anti-corruption office is under fire over allegations that it searched through the phone records of reporters and citizens critical of the organization and the government.
The agency claims that this was a due, legal process and that it only checked the information of those who had phone calls with some of the people it is investigating. However, there is speculation that this may expand into an illegal surveillance scandal.
When checking phone records, the investigation agency receives personal information including subscriber name, resident registration number and address from the relevant telecommunications company. If the person whose phone records were checked asks the telecommunications company, it has to inform them of the details of when and which investigative agencies have requested data within the past year.
According to local telecommunications companies, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) has asked for the phone records of at least 10 journalists from several conservative news outlets on multiple occasions.
In detail, the CIO requested the phone records of six reporters from the Chosun Ilbo on 12 occasions from July to October, while it also rifled through the phone logs of three reporters from the Joongang Ilbo 11 times from May to October.
The CIO data request first came to the light last week after Kim Kyeong-yul, the former deputy secretary general of the legal group Lawyers for a Democratic Society who has been critical of the Moon Jae-in administration, revealed that the office requested his phone data, Oct. 5.
Amid the growing controversy, the CIO explained the data requests were made because the reporters had phone conversations with people linked to its ongoing investigations.
“After confirming that reporters were in contact with suspects for business purposes, we excluded them from the subject of investigation,” it said in a press release without elaborating on what the ongoing probes were.
“This procedure also happens at other investigative agencies, including the police and the prosecution.”
In response, Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, strongly criticized the CIO for alleged illegal surveillance of the media, saying it was “unacceptable.”
“It is unbelievable that it took place in a democratic country as the data request itself is an act undermining freedom of speech,” Yoon said.
“I believe that such surveillance operations were possible because the Moon administration has its back.”
The CIO has been investigating Yoon over suspicions that when he was the prosecutor general, he ordered prosecutors to collect personal information about judges in charge of major cases involving ruling bloc figures.