KT&G under fire for requesting court seizure of reporter's salary

By Nam Hyun-woo

KT&G office in Seoul / Courtesy of KT&G

KT&G is under fire for asking a local court to seize the salary of a reporter who wrote an article criticizing the tobacco maker.

Journalists' organizations recently condemned this move as “an attempt to control journalists by abusing its capital power” and demanded the company withdraw the litigation and apologize. However, the company refused to do so, claiming it “exercised its right to defend itself.”

According to the Seoul Central District Court, it recently granted KT&G's request for a provisional seizure on the salary of Kang Jin-gu, a reporter at local newspaper the Kyunghyang Shinmun. The decision means half of Kang's monthly salary will be garnished until the total seized amount reaches 200 million won ($163,000).

The move came after Kyunghyang on Feb. 26 published an article reporting KT&G had unfairly pushed forward a merger between its affiliate KT&G Life Science and Yungjin Pharm, even though the latter opposed the merger, saying that KT&G Life Science's new drug was toxic.

Two days later, KT&G filed a damage suit worth 200 million won against the newspaper, its chief editor and Kang, as well as demanding the newspaper publish a correction. On the same day, KT&G also requested for the salary seizure targeting Kang only.

This triggered an uproar from journalist associations. The Journalists Association of Korea that said in a statement that the moves are “an attempt to place pressure on the freedom of press” and the seizure on Kang's salary is “a new type of attempt to muzzle journalism.”

The National Union of Media Workers and a number of other journalist associations said in a joint statement that the company, which logged 1 trillion won in operating profit last year, is retaliating against the reporter through the seizure on his personal salary and that this is an attempt to control the press.

As criticisms mount, KT&G said that it exercised “the minimum right to defend itself within legal boundaries to defy unilateral and unfair reporting,” adding that the court has granted the request as it acknowledges the company's grounds and it does not have any intention to threaten the freedom of the press.

“For the past 14 unilateral reports by Kang, the company has refrained from seeking legal remedies, while faithfully responding to his inquiries,” the company said, adding the article is far from being fact.