Anti-corruption agency accused of using 'Big Brother' tactics
Kim Jin-wook, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, heads to his office at the Government Complex Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Yonhap
Foreign correspondents' phone records examined
By Jung Da-min
An independent agency that is supposed to investigate corruption cases involving high-ranking officials is facing allegations of poring over the phone logs of opposition lawmakers as well as journalists, including their family members.
The investigative body, called the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO), is also the target of mounting criticism for resorting to “Big Brother” tactics, engaging in the random surveillance of citizens.
According to an official at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club (SFCC), Tuesday, two journalists who are members of the club discovered that the CIO searched through their phone records in July and August.
An SFCC official told The Korea Times that the organization is reviewing the case and collecting the opinions of its members to decide how to deal with the incident, including whether to issue a statement of protest.
A day before, local broadcaster TV Chosun reported that the CIO asked telecommunication companies to submit phone records of two correspondents, each from a Japanese newspaper and a Japanese broadcaster.
The two journalists said they had not contacted any CIO official or reported on the agency, according to TV Chosun. One of them had written an article about main opposition People Power Party (PPP) leader Lee Jun-seok and only mentioned that the CIO began an investigation into presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol before the party's primary, while the other did not even write a story about the agency's activities, according to the cable channel.
The surveillance allegations emerged earlier this month. So far, it is said that nearly 120 journalists from at least 22 media outlets, 39 PPP lawmakers and some 30 citizens, including members of an academic association critical of the Moon Jae-in government's prosecutorial reform policies, have allegedly had their phone records scrutinized by the CIO.
Following the allegations, the agency claimed its examinations of phone records were conducted in a due, legal process and added that it only checked the information of those who made phone calls with some of the people it is investigating. But the CIO did not disclose what the investigation was about and how the owners of the phone numbers were related to the cases they are probing.
That explanation drew further skepticism, because the agency was found to have searched the phone records of the family members of some journalists, including a reporter's mother who is a housewife.
PPP members lambasted the CIO's search of the phone records of citizens, calling it an illegal surveillance. They said the CIO is violating its duty of maintaining political neutrality as an investigative body, especially when the next presidential election, slated for March 9, is about 70 days away. The party also called for CIO head Kim Jin-wook's resignation.
The main opposition party raised suspicions that the CIO's activities are focused on accusations against PPP candidate Yoon. Since early September, the agency has been carrying out investigations into allegations that Yoon abused his power when serving as prosecutor general by ordering his aides to lodge defamation accusations against some ruling bloc figures.
“The CIO has conducted inspections of media, including journalists covering the political and the legal circles and especially those writing stories about candidate Yoon. This is proof that the CIO is not serving its original purpose, but rather focusing on protecting the vested rights of the ruling bloc to help it preserve power,” PPP spokesman Rep. Lee Yang-soo said in a commentary, Tuesday.