Kim Dae-jung's uneasy relations with South Korean press underlies arrests of newspaper owners
Analysis
By The Associated Press
08.20.01
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| South Korean President Kim Dae-jung
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SEOUL, South Korea — When President Kim Dae-jung led South Korea's political opposition in the mid-1990s, he condemned a government tax audit of major newspapers as a subtle means of pressuring critics of the state.
"The government's interference with the news media is more dogged and shrewder than that" of past military regimes, Kim was quoted as saying at the time, though charges were never filed against the papers.
Now Kim, the 2000 Nobel laureate who won the presidency in 1997, stands accused by opponents of a similar tactic following the arrests Aug. 17 of three prominent newspaper owners: trying to muzzle a critical media with an army of tax inspectors.
Jailed on tax evasion or embezzlement charges were Bang Sang-hoon, president and publisher of the nation's largest newspaper, Chosun Ilbo; Kim Byung-kwan, former honorary chairman of Dong-A Ilbo; and Cho Hee-joon, the controlling shareholder of Kookmin Ilbo.
The government denied that the arrests — part of a wider investigation of alleged financial wrongdoing at two dozen media organizations — were politically motivated.
"All people in the country are equal before the law. There should be no discrimination and sanctuaries in applying the law," presidential spokesman Park Joon-young said over the weekend.
The battle between the government and the news media focuses on two players with a long history of antagonism: 76-year-old Kim and the Chosun Ilbo.
Chosun published in its editions Aug. 18 an old photograph of a boy that the opposition party claimed was Kim as a high school student in 1943, wearing a Japanese military uniform.
In South Korea, many people, particularly the elderly, harbor deep resentment toward Japan, their former colonial master. Kim's ruling party said there was no evidence that the photograph was authentic.
Chosun and other newspapers, along with opposition leaders, also have quarreled with the government over Kim's policy of trying to engage North Korea.
They view it a naive and overly generous way to deal with a totalitarian regime with a record of human-rights abuses. North Korea ranks with Iraq as the country where press freedom is least tolerated, according to the annual rankings prepared by New York-based Freedom House.
Throughout his tumultuous political career, Kim has seldom been at ease with South Korea's conservative news media.
His aides complain that Kim was branded a dangerous leftist in his three unsuccessful campaigns for the presidency.
In contrast, Kim enjoyed close ties with international journalists. Many visited his heavily guarded home while he was under house arrest in the 1980s.
Chosun, which claims a readership of 2.4 million, often upset Kim. In 1989, its weekly magazine reported that opposition lawmakers accompanying Kim on a trip to Europe told obscene jokes to an Italian woman.
One of them reportedly shouted "Hey!" at Pope John Paul II while trying to arrange a photo session at the Vatican. Another Kim aide, Chosun said, embarrassed South Korea's international image by removing his socks on a plane.
Kim's then-opposition party promptly filed a libel suit against Chosun and urged a boycott of the newspaper. It later dropped the suit, and the boycott failed.
Update
South Korean president: News media continue to enjoy total freedom
Kim Dae-jung says arrest of three newspaper owners ‘is a tax problem, not an issue of press freedom.’
08.30.01
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