South Korea: editors and Parliament call for removal of press controls

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on August 31, 2007 at 9:23 AM

Floor leaders of South Korea’s five parliamentary parties met on Wednesday and agreed that the government’s new press controls hinder the public’s right to information, but no concrete action has been taken.

The government’s current policies make it difficult for media to get access to officials and merge press newsrooms into centralized briefing rooms.

“The government must normalize press access to officials through dialogue between government and journalists,” said the floor leaders, according to the Chosun Ilbo.

The next morning, managing and chief news editors of newspapers, broadcasters and news agencies met for the first time in 48 years (on such a wide scale) at the Korea Press Center in Seoul.

"Military dictators in the past attempted to ban the press from publishing what they had already covered. But the current government is attempting to block media coverage of government offices and access to government officials at source, which is a worse suppression of the press than during the military dictatorships,” they said.

The editors urged the government to suppress its controls and vowed to create a special committee if these demands weren’t fulfilled.

Source: Chosun Ilbo here and here