The autonomy and independence of culture and arts must be guaranteed, free of any political influence. Cultural figures' freedom of expression and their rights should be protected at any cost.
However, this basic principle of democracy was damaged badly by the previous conservative governments of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye as they blacklisted 8,931 cultural figures and 342 organizations known to be liberal or critical of their administrations.
A special investigative committee under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in announcing the results of their past nine months of hard work, said Tuesday that the blacklisted individuals and organizations in the fields of literature, performance, visual arts, traditional arts, music and broadcasting suffered a variety of disadvantages.
They were investigated, censored, controlled, discriminated against and excluded from government funding and various opportunities for their cultural and artistic activities during the Lee and Park administrations from 2008 to 2015, the committee said.
The two administrations mobilized government agencies, including the National Intelligence Service and the culture ministry, to systematically oppress cultural figures and organizations, most of which were “left-leaning” and critical of the government. Such oppression goes against the fundamentals of democracy, and illegally and unconstitutionally infringes upon the rights of these people.
Those involved in making such blacklists, including disgraced former President Park and former Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun, have already been convicted or are on trial for abuse of power.
The illegal blacklist seriously damaged the autonomy and diversity of our cultural and artistic world. It also caused public concern over these administrations' financial support for pro-government cultural figures.
The Moon Jae-in administration needs to work out systematic and fundamental measures to help heal the wounds of the oppressed cultural figures and correct these bad practices to prevent such a scandal from recurring.