Korean politics still struggling to find balanced tension with press

Press correspondents board the presidential plane before departing for President Yoon Suk-yeol's visit to Cambodia at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

President Yoon Suk-yeol is struggling with setting a balance in his tense relationship with the press. He is trying to style himself as a president encouraging reporters' role of monitoring and checking his power, but at the same time he invites controversy by introducing unpredictable measures to dispel what he believes to be "fake news."

President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee exit the presidential jet after arriving at Phnom Penh International Airport for his visit to Cambodia to attend a series of ASEAN-related summits, Friday. Yonhap

During the first six months of his presidency, Yoon has been keeping a routine of taking thorny questions from reporters on his way to the presidential office almost every day, a practice not employed by any of his predecessors. His secretaries say Yoon himself also thinks that it is "an important job that he will continue as long as possible," and puts significant efforts in preparing his remarks.

On the other hand, Yoon stirred heated debate last week by banning broadcaster MBC's crew from boarding the presidential jet to accompany him for his trip to Cambodia and Indonesia, dashing the broadcaster's opportunity to report the president's envisaged press conference on his plane. The presidential office cited MBC's "biased reports" which alleged Yoon gave a profanity-laden tirade against U.S. politicians which was caught on a hot mic during his trip to New York in September as the reason for the ban.

This ended up triggering international concerns on South Korea's press freedom, with Chad O'Carroll, founder of NK News, comparing the case to "logic North Korea uses for visiting journalists."

Maintaining a balance in tense relations with the press has been difficult for not only Yoon, but also his predecessors who took power after the country's democratization. Each administration, regardless of ideology, has had either minor or major cases of conflicts with the press.

In this Oct. 15, 2007, file photo, reporters sit on the floor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, after the government shut down press rooms. Korea Times photo by Ryu Hyo-jin

Conflicts with press

According to Reporters Without Borders' annual Press Freedom Index, South Korea's press freedom has improved during past liberal administrations. The highest rank the country reached was 31st in the world, recorded in 2006 during the Roh Moo-hyun administration. The top rank for the Moon Jae-in administration was 41st in 2019.

But this does not necessarily mean that there were no tensions with the press during the Roh and Moon presidencies. Rather, major press-government conflicts that took place during their tenures are remembered as iconic events of South Korea's modern press history.

Roh had been positive about having interviews and live press conferences throughout his presidency from 2003 to 2008, but his attempt to shut down press rooms at government ministries in 2007 made pundits remember him as the president with the thorniest relations with the press.

Dubbed "a plan for advanced supports for the press," Roh closed press rooms at government agencies to abolish the correspondent system for reporters, allowing access to government briefings and press rooms only for journalists admitted into the press corps.

On Jan. 16, 2007, Roh said during a Cabinet meeting that "reporters are holding onto their seats in press rooms and colluding to influence the entire flow of news stories."

Following the remark, the government came up with a plan in May to merge 37 press rooms into three and managed to carry out this plan five months later. In doing so, Roh said in June that "I think press rooms may reopen in the next administration, so I'm going to nail the doors of the press rooms shut and toss them to the next administration."

The decision infuriated the press, and invited a harsh backlash from both conservative and liberal newspapers against any of his administration's policies and his political moves. He later recalled that his presidency was full of "fatalistic confrontation."

As Roh anticipated, the closed press rooms were revived during the next conservative Lee Myung-bak administration.

"Though he is remembered for his tough remarks on the press room system, it was far from suppressing free speech," political commentator Rhee Jong-hoon said. "Other than the press room shutdown, Roh was more open to criticisms compared to his liberal successor Moon Jae-in."

President Moon Jae-in listens to a reporter's question during a press conference at Cheong Wa Dae, the former presidential office, Jan. 18, 2021. Yonhap

Moon, who served from 2017 until May this year, is remembered for the Ministry of Unification's decision to ban a conservative Chosun Ilbo reporter, who defected from North Korea, from covering an inter-Korean high-level meeting on Oct. 15, 2018.

At the time, the reporter was one of four pool reporters set to cover the event on behalf of the ministry's press pool, but the ministry demanded his replacement just three hours before the event.

Despite reporters' protests, the reporter was sidelined from the event, and the government later explained "there was no request from North Korea, and it was a measure under the special occasion." However, the press criticized this decision and accused the Moon administration of kowtowing to the North.

In 2021, the then-ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) attempted to pass a media arbitration law aimed at holding newspapers making false reports accountable for punitive damage compensation. As this triggered international concerns over South Korea's press freedom, then-President Moon called for a prudent review of the bill, and it ended up not passing the National Assembly.

Former President Park Geun-hye leaves the podium after refusing to take questions from reporters during a televised statement at Cheong Wa Dae, Nov. 29, 2016. Korea Times photo by Koh Young-kwon

Press under conservatives

Two conservative presidents between Roh and Moon, Lee Myung-bak who served from 2008 to 2013 and Park Geun-hye who served from 2013 until her impeachment in 2017, also had major conflicts with the press, which accused them of using their influence to fill the leadership of major broadcasters with pro-government figures.

In a 2017 report by the liberal Hankyoreh newspaper, the National Intelligence Service in 2010 created a document containing plans to abolish "left-leaning" TV programs and replace the producers in charge of those programs at broadcasters MBC and KBS.

Similar tactics were used by Lee's conservative successor, Park Geun-hye. In the National Assembly's bill on impeaching her, then-opposition lawmakers pointed out that she was responsible for infringing press freedom.

In memos written by senior presidential secretary for civil affairs Kim Young-han, who served Park for seven months from June 2014, then-presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon had said the administration "should not let the press make unilateral, unreasonable and groundless criticisms" and urged a "thorough response to give disadvantages to those news outlets."

During this period, the prosecutors indicted a Japanese journalist on charges of defaming Park by reporting on rumors about her whereabouts on the day of the Sewol ferry sinking that killed more than 300 people in 2014.

Former President Kim Dae-jung shakes hands with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il after arriving at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport for an inter-Korean summit on June 13, 2000. Joint Press Corps

Times after democratization

Pundits said tensions between the power and the press in South Korea had been at a relatively desirable level during the 1993-98 Kim Young-sam and the 1998-2003 Kim Dae-jung administrations, only a few years after the country began to elect leaders through a democratic process.

"In my opinion, the two administrations understood the press better than their successors," said Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University.

"Both of them have long engaged in democratic movements in their political careers and saw the press getting suppressed by the powers that be," Shin said. "So they had the idea that they had to go together with the press, even if they didn't like their reports."

Shin cited the case of former President Kim Dae-jung's decision to bring Chosun Ilbo and KBS reporters together to cover his summit with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.

According to Moon Chung-in, former special presidential adviser for foreign affairs and national security, North Korea refused the reporters' entry to report on the summit, but the South Korean government countered that the South Korean delegation would not visit Pyongyang if reporters of the two news outlets could not go.

On former President Kim's order, the two reporters boarded the presidential jet and visited Pyongyang.

Political commentator Rhee also noted that the two Kims were open to the press, and administrations that came after them, after more time had passed from democratization, made more attempts to control the press.

"I think attempts to control the press became noticeable in the Lee Myung-bak administration, which tried to find out reporting propensities of each media," Rhee said. "During the Park Geun-hye administration, it made a blacklist of liberal artists and journalists, and the Moon Jae-in administration also sued many journalists."

Rhee noted that those attempts to control the press were mostly noted when the administrations felt that they were under criticism. "If the administrations were enjoying high public support for their policies, they wouldn't bother controlling the media," he said.

Professor Shin also said that the duty of the press is to hold the powers that be accountable, and deciding whether or not a criticism is valid should fall to the public, not the president.