I have been a journalist myself for 44 years, but few other
occupations can exercise undeserved influence as Korean journalists. Since the
dynasty of Chosun, there has been a tradition in which the pressmen have used
their unworthy power as part of political power.
Those who have inherited this tradition have become impudent
enough to write articles urging the President to sack the chief of National
Security Service or pick up a quarrel with the President if their advice is
rejected, as if they were in charge of personnel management rising above the
president. The real fact is that they are cowardly refusing to go to Syria to report the dangerous civil war there,
but ensconce themselves comfortably in Seoul.
Have you heard a president of a newspaper having resigned because of a report
by a journalist being found incorrect? Have you heard the chief of national
police agency having been sacked if a head of a police box is arrested?
The ills of the Korean media are that they are weak to fact,
but strong in argument. They find it difficult to delve into the fact, but find
it easy and nice to comment. I am reminded of what one of veteran journalists
for the presidential house said at their meeting during the days of President
ROH Tae-woo.:
“ The way for the nation to perish fastest
will be to follow the opposition party’s opinions. If you want to perish secondly fastest, it
will be to follow the editorials of the press.”
I once heard a former spokesperson of a large local
autonomous entity, who used to be a journalist himself in the past say, “ I
have more than 1000 journalists to deal with in my capacity, and I have to point it out that the ills of the
highhanded behaviors of journalists should be a big burden to the national
development.” There are more than 20,0000 journalists in Korea. If these pressmen should
make false agitations and report distorted and fabricated information so as to
diffuse complaints and discontents among the people, they would ruin the mental
health and common sense of the nation.,
Under these circumstances of media, one of the moral
principles a public servant should be equipped with is the insensibility. In
other words, he should not respond to such nonsensical articles and editorials,
even taking no notice of them.
One should devaluate such an argument of a newspaper as
refers to KIM Il-sung’s birthday as Solar Holiday and cannot distinguish the
largest from the longest.
A Study of how Korean media have become tools for
demagoguism.
The tradition of moral justification of media The doctrine
of moral justification of media has been a driving force in politics since the
Chosun dynasty. During the era of Chosun dynasty, the three departments in the
royal court, 사헌부 ‘Saheonbu (Media), 사간원 Saganwon (Prosecution), 홍무관 Hongmungwan (Education) and 의정랑 Ijojeonrang (=personnel department within the ruling party) and Sarim (pro-Ming Confucius scholars faction - ideological activists) play
principal parts in leading the politics by taking the lead of media and public
opinion. The political structures and physiology of the media of the Chosun
dynasty are similar to those of today’s Korea.
‘Members of Sarim (pro-Ming faction), the society of
Confucian scholars, which had produced dominant bureaucrats of government since
the dynasty of ‘King, Seonjo, were mostly pupils of the Confucian scholars who
had opposed to the foundation of Chosun kingdom. They were dissident by nature
and strong in the moral cause and defiant. They refused to acknowledge the
justification of the foundation of Chosun even though they lived in the country
of Chosun, just as those leftists today refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of
the foundation of the Republic of Korea while living in Korea. Their psychology tends to be
of self-injury and leads to hypocritical morality.
The elites of the Chosun Dynasty worshiped the philosophy of
Juja sect of confucianism as foundation, while the Korean politicians and
journalists today believe in democracy.
The main weapons used in the factional strife in the time of
Chosun Dynasty were the moral justifications derived from Juja theory and the
others were the public opinions and impeachment created by the three
departments and Ijojeonrang. They are far from the spirit of practicality and
militarism, even far from that of independence.
The physiology of Korean media in the 21st have
the power to set up the themes of politics and employ exposure as a main weapon
and show inclinations of anti-government, anti-business, anti-practicality,
anti-military and of strong moralism in the manner of reporting. The media takes
place of the role of Saganwon and the prosecution that of Saheonbu, the
academic circle that of Hongmungwan, the ideological activists that of Sarim
(pro-Ming Confucius scholars faction) in Chosun era. The Ijoreonrang can be
compared with the personnel department within the ruling party. In Korea today,
the media, prosecution and academic scholars have a dominant influence on the
politics as in the era of Chosun Dynasty.
Their themes to dominate the politics are justification of
the cause and moral argument. In spite of their being under the systems of free
democracy and market economy, the mode and sense of value of the media tend to
be adherent to traditional customs of the old.
To name a few features of the traditions of the Chosun
Dynasty, they were the justification of the cause, hypocrisy,
anti-establishment, ignorance of army, economy, science as well as the
flunkeyism and attachment to dogma. They were so old-fashioned as to correspond
with today’s leftist ideology. The regimes of Chosun Dynasty were leftist by
nature and lasted for 600 years, but it is not until the Republic of Korea
was founded that the values of the right wing such as freedom and competition
started to gain power. So the score is 60 years of the rightists and 600 years
of the leftists. As a result, the root of the rightists is feeble, but that of
the leftists strong. The North
Korea’s regime is an offspring of Chosun
Dynasty.
Building up Nation and Country, and Role of the Media
*The media of the Enlightenment Period : The advent of
modern newspaper seemed to help break away from the traditions of the media of
Chosun Dynasty and lead to contributing to public well=being. SEO Jae-pil and
RHEE Seung-man, who took an initiative of enlightening movement, attached
importance to educating the nation through the media and publications.
RHEE Seung-man was president and leading editorial writer of
The first Korean newspater.
The Colonial period under Japanese rule
The media were focused on educating the nation and on
independence movement. Many defiant and patriotic journalists were produced. In
particular, the Chosun Daily and DongA Daily were virtually a people’s
government and produced men of talent.
After the establishment of Korean government in 1948
With the era of democracy set in, the media played a proper
role in communicating information and shaping public opinion and exercised a
huge influence on trend of the politics by assuming critical and resistant
attitude of reporting against the incumbent government. Korea experienced many violent
political and social upheavals including the 4.19 student uprisings, the 10.26
assassination of former president PARK Jung-hee, 2.12 general election, 6.29
declaration and so on.
The role of the media was so great and important beyond
comparison with any other country. Since 1987, the political justification of
the cause belonging to old Chosun Dynasty’s physiology, was revived in the
course of democratization. Consequently the elites of the army suffered and the
modern version of three departments and Sarim were ushered in to lead the
politics : Saheonbu = Prosecution, Saganwon = the Media, Hongmungwan =
universities, Sarim = the circle of activists. The order of status of old
Chosun re-appeared, which is traditional four classes of society, : the
scholarly, the agricultural, the industrial and the mercantile classes. Modern
version of the scholarly = prosecution, politicians, journalists and professors
of university. These elements
monopolized the power and overpowered the military men, the businessmen and
scientists.
The military and the civilians
RHEE Seung-man and PARK Jung-hee were revolutionists, who
harbored antipathy against the values of old Chosun Dynasty. These two leaders
gave favorable treatment to the military men, businessmen, scientists,
technicians and helped make these people the heroes in creating history for the
first time in the national history. The theory of justification of the cause
derived from Juja sect of Confucianism was replaced by that of democracy following
the founding of the government. The former eventually provided a kind of
culture for people to be easily cheated by the communist propaganda, which
stressed on democracy and nation rather than the country and national interest.
But the 30-year military regimes by PARK Jung-hee - JEON Du-han – ROH Tae-woo
should be exceptional in the Korean political soil in that the military power
subdued the media by force. But it was the period of practicality with emphasis
on economy, military affairs, science and technology.
After the end of the military regimes, democratization
returned ushering in normal era, which can be called normalization of Korean
politics with civilians prevailing over the military.
After Democratization in 1987
In the course of shifting of politics towards civilians and
democracy, appeared the symptoms of restoring the factional politics of old
Chosun Dynasty., which helped the media incline to the left. The pro-communist
sect, so called Jusa Sect, created by the North
Korea’s tenacious espionage against South Korea was
successful in taking advantage of the weak points of democracy to take root in
Korean society. Moreover, the leftist media have idealized these forces as
reformative, democratic and progressive, helping them exercise their political
powers.
Media Environment of Era of Information - Expansion
in magnitude and increase of influence :
The diversification of media functions such as newspaper –
radio – TV – internet – smart phone – SNS etc. has lengthened the hours for
people to contact the media. According to the survey conducted by Radio
Communication Committee, the time spent daily to watch TV per person is 187
minutes, 90 minutes for internet, 71 minutes for radio, which amounts to almost
6 hours exposure daily to the media.
There are more than 700 radio stations and the yearly
turnover is about 20 trillion. Around 50,000 are employed in the media, with
more than 20,000 journalists among them. In all the areas of state affairs, the
media and public relation have decisive influence. In election campaign,
publicity and propaganda are more important than the organization. The national
policy cannot make any progress without successful PR.
Participation of all nation in the media
With the entry of internet, the public can now directly
shape public opinion by writing articles and participating in the media. While
the forum for public opinion is widened, the qualities of speech and texts have
degraded and demagogical elements have increased.
The policy of exclusive use of Korean alphabets, Hangeul and
abolition of Chinese characters has helped such degradation.
Weakening of Ethics of the Media
The objectivity and
impartiality, the basic principles of the media, have been impaired by the leftist trend of ideology, commercialism,
demagogy, factionalism..
Weakening of Ethics of the Media
The objectivity and
impartiality, the basic principles of the media, have been impaired by the leftist trend of ideology, commercialism,
demagogy, factionalism.
Cases of Political
Demagogy in the Media
1998, deletion of story of the anti-communist boy, LEE
Seung-bok by the leftist
media
2002, the disclosure of fraud by KIM Dae-up relating to the
son of LEE, Hoe-chang,
the presidential candidate of the conservative party
2003, sham campaign to falsify KIM Hyun-hee by the media,
MBC
2004, prejudiced report of impeachment against ROH by KBS
and MBC
2008, agitated report of violent rally related to mad cow
disease by MBC.
2010, inflating of suspicion of the naval vessel sunk, the
Cheonan by leftist media
2012, the instigation of rumor of murder of JANG Jun-ha by
leftist media newspaper Hankyeorye and SBS station.
The current
problems the Korean media are faced with
a. The gaining power of the pro-North Korea faction helped by the media
and abolition of Chinese characters have driven the young Korean democracy into
crisis by weakening the discerning power of the people.
b. The principles of the media are crumbling down. The
tendency to the leftist ideology and destruction of Korean language have
contributed to the collapsing of rules of grammar, those of the Constitution,
of the importance of the truth, of impartiality, of fairness and objectivity.
These phenomena take place most gravely in the influential radio stations and
internet portals
c. As the Sarim of Chosun Dynasty, the employees in the
media are of anti-
establishment and defiant and weak in areas of economy,
military and science. Politics and the media are vying with each other in
deepening the hypocritical morality.
d. There are too many grammatical errors in the newspaper
articles. They do not distinguish the report of the fact from the comment. They
prefer to use seditious words rather use accurate ones. The proofreading
function of the desk has weakened.
The pronounciation of Korean words is erroneous owing to the
abolition of Chinese characters. The tendency
to short vowel is notable.
e. Part of journalists, biased towards the leftist, write
articles having elements of anti-
nation, anti-military, anti-law and order and
anti-capitalism. They are sympathetic to the leftists, the marginal, North Korea and the intellectuals, but negative
to the government, business, military and the USA. About 37% of journalists are
in their thirties, while 36% are in their forties. These generations have been
influenced by the exclusive use of Korean alphabets and the leftist tendency.
Such prejudiced ideology tends to ignore the principles of objectivity in
reporting.
f. There are no more respectful high class newspapers in Korea
like the New York Times of USA, the Asahi of Japan, the Economist of England,
the Remont? of France.
The newspapers here abandoned the role of cultivating the
cultures of people. We have a saying, “No good politics without no good media.”
g. Faced with the era of ideological confrontation, we often
see strong factionalism in the media society. The fundamental spirit of the
journalists to give priority to feature story or in-depth story has weakened.
The principle is not observed, which is the truth of fact is more important
than the beliefs.
h. The propaganda tools of the leftist force pass themselves
off as the normal media.
i. The prejudice of three large public radio stations has
ruined the entire community.
At the time of impeachment affairs and violent upheavals of
mad cow disease, the three large radio stations virtually played an agitating
role of the leftists.
j. The restraining power of the society to hold in check the
reports of anti-media, anti-
law and order by the radio stations has weakened. The
politics blindly follows the false public opinions fabricated by the agitating
media.
Counter-measures and Solutions
a. Reinforcement of people’s cultures: Good sense of
discretion of the viewers and readers can make good media just as fastidious customers
can make good products. The media create
the public opinions and the public make the media vice versa.
b. Normalization of Korean language : mixed use of Chinese
characters in Korean, the reinforcement
of education on Korean language and Korean history.
c. Strenththening of people’s watch over the agitating media
and their journalists
d. Consolidation of educating the journalists
Conclusion :
The big obstacle to the maturity of Korea’s
democracy should be the seditious media. In collusion with pro-North Korea forces, they help the pro-north Korea sect to
win the election to grasp the power by destroying the discerning sense of the
people with providing biased reports to the public. It is necessary and
important to have the self-attempt to cleanse the inside of the media as well
as the restraint and watch from the outside, which can make the change.
Particularly, The awakening on the part of the public and the pressure of
opinion are very important.
