If you have the time to spare, check out Mr. Scofield’s latest column in the Asia Times - as always, it’s excellent. Just a sampling:
Soon after his inauguration last spring, Roh declared “war” on the nation’s independent media, declaring that he would vigorously pursue those who “distort and misrepresent” his administration and its policies. Indeed, some of Roh’s more irrational supporters have taken it on themselves to attack physically and intimidate newspaper publishers who they maintain harbor “anti-Roh, anti-progressive” bias. A media watchdog, the International Press Institute, has included South Korea, along with Russia, Venezuela and Zimbabwe, on its Media Watch list since 2001. The Paris-based organization cites government activities designed to “curb and coerce” the media among other government intrusions designed to reduce the freedom of the press in South Korea as reason for inclusion on the list.
There is little dissent within the nation’s public broadcaster, however, as KBS, managed by a former editor of the Seoul-based, North-sympathetic Hankyoreh newspaper, has been so glowing in its portrayal of the Northern leadership that fleeing North Korean refugees huddled in China’s Jilin province prefer not to listen. Refugees complain that they only hear positive portrayals of the North and its leadership on KBS, a fact that disgusts those who have witnessed the depraved regime first hand. Indeed, discussion of North Korea’s human rights atrocities is largely absent in South Korean media, and in most circles of society here. Perhaps South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun summed up the country’s position well when he was quoted by Wall Street Journal associate editor Melanie Kirkpatrick as saying, “Political freedom is a luxury, like pearls for a pig. The improvement of economic conditions for the North Korean people is the most important issue right now.”
Oh, and while your at it, check Barry Brigg’s commentary on the piece, in which he compares South Korea to a battered wife. I’m not sure if agree totally with the analogy, but read it anyway.
4 Comments
To begin with, the IPI is based in Vienna, not Paris.
Also, IMHO it is a few steps from outright lying to call the IPI a “media watchdog.” The IPI is the media. Take this statement from its IPI Profile link:
“IPI’s membership is made up of editors and media executives working for some of the world’s most respected media outlets.”
Regular journalists and ordinary concerned citizens are not permitted membership, and the Chosun Ilbo’s president Bang Sang-hoon is the vice president of the organization. (See here.) If the IPI is a “media watchdog” then Automakers of America is a radical environmentalist organization. (Please note I’m not saying “Automakers of America” would not have the right to speak about the environment, just that they aren’t “watching” themselves, they’re “watching out for” themselves.)
Several governments ago, Roh won a defamation case against the Chosun when it took his roughly two person light sailing craft and wrote an article about how he was a politician who pretends to be one of the common people but has a super luxurious yacht so essentially isn’t. I have heard that Roh’s wife is on his case about his relationship with the Chosun, suggesting he make up with it and the DongA, JoongAng, etc, and I agree that he’s letting them get to him a little much, but I still believe he’s angry at them mostly as a matter of principle, too much even for his own good. If the NYT, WP, & WSJ were lying repeatedly about the Bush Administration, eventually, someone in the Bush Administration would do something about it, I’m not sure what and can’t say they’d take the same courses of action, but the unwritten law against leaders suing the media might be worth a little reconsideration when it’s the country’s most influential media that are misrepresenting the facts .
I really like the Chosun, as papers here go, but this is a paper that has yet to give any sort of apology or explanation for things like praising Hitler’s invasion of Poland, repeated and continued glamorizations of Japan during the colonial period, campaigns (by Chosun owner, execs) to have young people go to the military for the Japanese, prasing Chun Doo-hwan shortly after slaughering people in Gwangju, calling the freedom fighers in Gwangju “hoodlums with guns,” and other such things, including simply saying nothing when Chun shut down numerous news outlets around the country because there were too many. I’m not suggesting the paper should be shut down or that everyone should be taken out and shot, but having such an influential paper unable to confront its past, one that includes cooperation with gov’ts that did away with other media only to now turn and cry foul, is something that cannot be healthy for any society.
I haven’t even read the whole article by Mr. Scofield (whoever he is), but while everything else I’ve said about the Chosun might be best left for another day, his characterization of the IPI is either a question of his ethics or competence.
I’ll skip the middle part of Mr. Schroepfer’s comment since I’m not exactly sure why he’s talking so much about the Chosun Ilbo — “An elephant walks into a bar, orders a Jack and Coke and the bartender says ‘Sorry, we don’t serve paralegals,’” and I’m not sure about the beginning of his comment as to whether or not the IPI is in Paris or Vienna, but his last comment did strike me as interesting. If Mr. Schroepfer hasn’t “even read the whole article by Mr. Scofield (whoever he is),” why is he commenting on it? Isn’t that how book burning gets started? BTW - I heard that Huckleberry Finn includes race mixing. I read the article in question and, having lived in Korea since ‘95 and doing my best to keep abreast of what’s going on, think Mr. Scofield (if Mr. Schroepfer is still wondering who he is, a brief bio is included at the end of the article for those who read it) has a point. But, I suppose, if only the IPI’s report spoke of the fair and balanced Chosun Ilbo Mr. Scofield would be wrong and Mr. Schroepfer would have a led to stand on. But then, of course, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, everyday would Christmas. Darnit - it’s only November.
If about Mr. Scofield’s stuff The Marmot “as always, it’s excellent,” then it’s gotta be. Which is what makes the disinformation about the IPI and what it says about the press situation here so much more problematic. Sort of like, yes, the Chosun - lots of quality information mixed in with the occasional half-truth or with the occasional lack of the whole truth. The Chosun also quotes the IPI w/o ever explaining that it’s an industry group and the Chosun’s CEO is a vice pres of IPI.
Having later looked through the article, everything else looks arguable. That’s a compliment, since I mean to say you could easily argue he’s right. But if the IPI’s own website says it’s in Vienna and that Bang Sang-hoon is a vice prez there, then it means Mr. Scofield wrote his article without checking the facts. (At least I hope that’s all it was. The Chosun keeps from mentioning the connection by intention.)
South Korea as battered wife? No, It is much sleazier than that.
North Korea is South Korea’s pimp. South Korea is North Korea’s bitch.
Think about it. South Korea has to make money and turn it over to her pimp. She has to try to create diplomatic obstacles for her pimp. South Korea is not just there to be beat up on. So battered wife doesn’t fit. She’s there to work the world economic and diplomatic streets and bring back things for her pimp.
I introduce the idea in my post about the Marmot and David Scofield.
Excerpt:
The real tragedy of the 1994 Framework Accord (a.k.a. Geneva Agreed Framework) that Clinton and Carter are responsible for is that it sent South Korea’s internal politics hurdling down a path where the net result is that the 1994 Accord has turned South Korea into North Korea’s bitch.