Mad bullying disease

Apr 2nd 2009 | SEOUL
From The Economist print edition
Press freedom under attack

NORTH KOREA this week detained a South Korean man for criticising Kim Jong Il’s regime and “trying to lure a
female North Korean” south. No surprise there. More strikingly, across the border, South Korean prosecutors
last week arrested a producer at the country’s second-biggest television station, Munhwa Broadcasting
Corporation (MBC), and four union members at a 24-hour TV news channel, YTN.

Lee Choon-keun, a producer at South Korea’s best known investigative television programme, PD Notebook,
spent 48 hours in jail after a former agriculture minister and his deputy accused the programme of slandering
them in April 2008. The programme had asked whether American beef was free from mad-cow disease. The
prime minister, Han Seung-soo, says the information was misleading and “led Korea into chaos” by sparking
vast street demonstrations against the government’s decision to resume imports of American beef. Arrest
warrants are out for five other PD Notebook journalists. Some MBC employees are sleeping in the station’s
lobby to prevent police from seizing their videotapes and notes.

At YTN, the leader of its union, Roh Jong-myun, and three others were arrested for obstructing the president,
Gu Bon-hong, from entering his office. YTN’s union feared that Mr Gu, who was appointed to his post by the
government last year, would undermine the station’s editorial independence. Nearly half the channel’s
employees went on strike because of Mr Roh’s detention, though the dispute was settled this week. Amnesty
International claims his arrest was part of “an increasingly concerted effort by the government to control South
Korea’s media”. It says that last year the heads of four other media groups—the state-owned Korea
Broadcasting System (the country’s largest television station), Korean Broadcasting Advertising Corporation,
Arirang TV and Sky Life—were replaced by government supporters.

The ruling Grand National Party is now debating whether to make it a crime to post inaccurate or misleading
information on the internet. A blogger, Park Dae-sung, was arrested in December after being rude about the
government’s economic management. He is still in jail. “Every journalist in South Korea is fearful right now,”
says PD Notebook’s Mr Lee.

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