Korea's No.1 newspaper ousted from biggest portal for unauthorized content distribution

Naver has penalized the Chosun Ilbo over unauthorized articles.

By Park Si-soo

Chosun Ilbo, the highest-circulation conservative newspaper in South Korea, has been removed temporarily from the nation's biggest portal site Naver for distributing nearly 5,000 unauthorized articles on the website this year.

The 48-hour penalty was implemented Wednesday morning and will continue through Friday morning, during which Chosun's articles and visual content will vanish from Naver.

On top of this, the portal's partnership assessment committee is reviewing the daily's unauthorized distribution to decide whether to terminate Chosun's content-selling contract. Its decision will be announced early next month.

The suspension is a major blow to the paper that has promoted itself as the nation's most influential paper for many years. If the committee decides to terminate Chosun's contract, the daily will see its online exposure diminish significantly. Naver commands over 70 percent of Korea's online news market.

Chosun begged Naver for mercy, alleging the unauthorized distribution was a “mistake” made in the process of spinning off a small in-house publisher, but to no avail.