Criticism mounting over journalist-turned-lawmaker's defense against illegal reporting method

Rep. Kim Eui-kyeom of the minor opposition Open Minjoo Party / Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

Criticism is mounting over a journalist-turned-lawmaker's remark that it was common for journalists in his days to impersonate the police in order to obtain information for stories.

Other journalist-turned-politicians all refuted the remark by Rep. Kim Eui-kyeom, of the minor liberal Open Minjoo Party, a former spokesman for President Moon Jae-in, urging him to apologize to journalists.

He made the remark Monday in a radio interview about a case where two reporters from local broadcaster MBC allegedly impersonated police officers, while looking into suspicions surrounding former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol's wife.

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl / Yonhap

MBC apologized and suspended the two journalists from work for violating journalism ethics, and Yoon's side asked police to investigate them, Saturday.

In an apparent bid to attack Yoon, the strongest presidential contender from the conservative main opposition bloc, the former Hankyoreh daily reporter said that the MBC reporters may have impersonated police officers, because they don't have official investigative rights, adding that “(impersonating the police) was something commonly done by older reporters in my days (as a journalist).”

“I believe that almost all my peer reporters have done so once or twice,” he said, adding that some reporters would even use the phone at a police station to make the person they were calling believe they were real police officers.

“As the years have passed, the standards for journalistic ethics have changed, and it is now considered wrong for reporters to do that,” he said.

But Rep. Kim said that Yoon filing a complaint with the police against the reporters who were covering suspicions surrounding his wife's behavior was an overreaction.

His remark drew immediate criticism from other politicians.

“Impersonating a civil servant is a clear crime subject to three years in prison or a fine of up to 7 million won ($6,120),” conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP) spokesman Yang Jun-woo said. “He defended an act of violating journalism ethics for his political gains. It is an insult to reporters working hard in the field. Rep. Kim should apologize to other reporters doing their best, and authorities should strictly investigate the MBC reporters in order to strengthen media ethics and prevent recurrences.”

Rep. Chung Jin-suk of the PPP, who was once a journalist of the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, said he was dumbfounded by Kim's remark.

Chung, who said he had started his journalism career about four to five years earlier than Kim, wrote on social media, “Collecting news by impersonating a police officer? Was I an incompetent reporter?”

He said that it may have been common among the journalists around Kim to impersonate police officers, but he had never thought about attempting such a method. “It is a crime,” he wrote. “The freedom of the press should be achieved within legal boundaries.”