THE MEDIA

SOUTH KOREA

A) Modern Korean journalism began after the opening of Korea in 1876 (1883 – Hansŏng sunbo in Chinese). 1) The Korean press had a strong reformist and nationalistic flavour from the beginning but faced efforts at political control or outright censorship during most of the twentieth century. Many Korean journalists established a tradition of remaining independent. They were often critical of the government, zealously protesting any attempts at press censorship. Hansŏng sunbo – reported the abuses of Chinese troops, stationed in Seoul, against Seoul shop-keepers (killing of a drug store owner who dared to demand from a Chinese soldier to pay for the medicine the latter took), and provoked a diplomatic friction. First law on the press censorship – adopted by puppet Korean government in 1907 under strong Japanese pressure. “Permission system” for the periodicals, “advance censorship”.

2) Press was an important medium for strengthening and promoting incipient nationalist ideology. From 1885 – a governmental newspaper, Hansŏng chubo started to be printed in “mixed shrift” – Korean alphabet and Chinese characters (along with Japanese modern examples). That could not but strengthen awareness of Korea’s indigenous culture – ”linguistic nationalism”. Switch to “mixed shrift” in Korea – parallel to the switch from Latin to the vernaculars in Europe – pushed first by the press. 1896 – Tongnip sinmun (The Independent) – “linguistic revolution” – adoption of Korean alphabet-only shrift, which targeted larger popular audience (and was suggested by the example of Western languages with alphabet-only writing systems). In a way, usage of Korean writing in press (instead of Chinese characters) pushed ahead the process of setting the symbolic “border” between Korea and China, dealing a strong blow to the mediaeval sense of common regional tradition.

3) Press played enormous role in the process of “modernizing” Korean vocabulary, introducing new, “modern” terms (mostly from Japanese, for Japanese press translated lots of European terms earlier): “society”, “political party”, “progress”, “evolution”, “race”, etc.

So Chaep’il (Phillip Jaisohn), founder of The Independent (1896).

His newspaper (Korean version)

B) At annexation in 1910, the Japanese governor general assumed direct control of the press along with other public institutions. 1910-1919 – “dark period” with no independent Korean language newspapers (only two pro-Japanese government-controlled Korean newspapers existed, together with some Japanese language papers; émigré Korean press remained free in Russian Maritime Province and USA). Following the March First Movement in 1919, Japanese authorities loosened their overt control over cultural activities and permitted several Korean newspapers to function while maintaining some behind-the-scenes direction over politically sensitive topics.

- The aim was to “soften” Korean resistance to the Japanese rule, and to strengthen moderate, potentially pro-Japanese “culturalists” (who considered “enhancement of Korean culture and industry” a precondition for independence and did not support armed anti-Japanese struggle), to whom mostly the opportunities to publish the newspapers were amply given (typically – Tonga ilbo, the “nerve centre” of the “culturalists” movement).

- At the same time, even moderate “culturalists” found Japanese press restriction too stiffening. During the 1920s, Korean vernacular newspapers, such as Tonga ilbo (East Asia Daily), and intellectual journals such as Kaebyok (Creation), conducted running skirmishes with Japanese censors. Japanese authorities prohibited sales of individual issues on hundreds of occasions between 1926 and 1932. Japan's war mobilization in the ensuing years ended any semblance of autonomy for the Korean press; all Korean-language publications were outlawed in 1941.

- Tonga ilbo’s “culturalism”, rather than directly opposing Japanese rule, was aimed at creating of better condition’s for Korea’s nascent bourgeoisie inside the framework of the colonial rule, “independence” being only very remote goal (if mentioned at all). Ideologically, “culturalists” adopted colonial paradigm of “Orientalizing” Koreans, agreeing with the Japanese that Koreans looked just the same way as West/Japan used to depict “subject/inferior races” – “dirty, lazy, non-religious, extremely materialistic, selfish, Sinophilic”, etc. The aim was to “reinvigorate Korean race”, imbuing it with the qualities which Korea’s early capitalists considered “positive” (“discipline”, “diligence”, “sense of duty”, etc.).

- 1930^th – important for Korean press history. The paradigm of press capital was established: typically, a big business interest used to run a major newspaper and several affiliated journals (“press empires”). Bigger newspapers – issued stocks, but usually had one “dynasty” of majority shareholders who actually ran them (Tonga ilbo – Kim Sŏngsu’s family – landlords turned textile tycoons and educators - were major stockowners). The pro-Japanese collaboration of all legal newspapers in late 1930^th – still a sensitive issue. Radio – 17 radio stations and more than 200,000 receivers before 1945. Radio as main Japanese brain-washer for the propertied class (underprivileged did not have the receivers).

C) Following the period of the United States Army Military Government in Korea (1945-48), which saw a burgeoning of newspapers and periodicals of every description as well as occasional censorship of the media (American military authorities used to rigorously censor and fine leftist newspapers, mostly for “slandering the authorities”), almost all subsequent South Korean governments have at times attempted to control the media. Syngman Rhee's government continued the military government's Ordinance Number Eighty-Eight, which outlawed leftist newspapers. Rhee also closed moderate newspapers and arrested reporters and publishers on numerous occasions between 1948 and 1960. Still, some well-known opposition intellectual journals persisted, f.. ex., famous “World of Ideas” (Sasanggye, founded in 1953). Main opposition newspaper – Catholic Kyonghyang simmun. Proliferation of newspapers during the short democratic interlude of 1960-1961 – more than 100 all over the country.

D) On taking power in 1961, Park Chung Hee's Supreme Council for National Reconstruction closed all but fifteen of Seoul's sixty-four daily newspapers and refused to register a comparable percentage of the country's news services, weeklies, and monthly publications while using its own radio and news agencies to promote its official line. The only non-governmental radio station for long time (until 1960^th) was Christian Broadcasting – CBS (established in 1954). The TV broadcasting – governmental and private (“Samsong”- controlled) started in 1961. The Park government used the Press Ethics Commission Law of 1964 and, after 1972, emergency decrees that penalized criticism of the government to keep the media in line. In 1974 the government ordered a number of journalists fired and used the KCIA to force Tonga ilbo to stop its reporting on popular opposition to the Park government by intimidating the paper's advertisers.

During the Park and Chun years, the government exercised considerable control and surveillance over the media through the comprehensive National Security Act.

E) In late 1980, the Chun government established more thorough control of the news media than had existed in the South Korea since the Korean War. Independent news agencies were absorbed into a single state-run agency, numerous provincial newspapers were closed, central newspapers were forbidden to station correspondents in provincial cities, the Christian Broadcasting System network was forbidden to provide news coverage, and two independent broadcasting companies were absorbed into the state-run Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). In addition, the Defense Security Command, then commanded by Roh Tae Woo, and the Ministry of Culture and Information ordered hundreds of South Korean journalists fired and banned from newspaper writing or editing. The Basic Press Act of December 1980 was the legal capstone of Chun's system of media control and provided for censorship and control of newspapers, periodicals, and broadcast media. It also set the professional qualifications for journalists. Media censorship was coordinated with intelligence officials, representatives of various government agencies, and the presidential staff by the Office of Public Information Policy within the Ministry of Culture and Information using daily secret "reporting guidelines" (podo chich'im) sent to newspaper editors. The guidelines dealt exhaustively with questions of emphasis, topics to be covered or avoided, the use of government press releases, and even the size of headlines. Enforcement methods ranged from telephone calls to editors to more serious forms of intimidation, including interrogations and beatings by police. One former Ministry of Culture and Information official told a National Assembly hearing in 1988 that compliance during his tenure from 1980 to 1982 reached about 70 percent. The secret of the “reporting guidelines” was revealed by “Mal”, a progressive journal founded by those journalists that were fired from the “major” newspapers and blacklisted.

By the mid-1980s, censorship of print and broadcast media had become one of the most widely and publicly criticized practices of the Chun government. Even the government-controlled Yonhap News Agency noted in 1989 that "TV companies, scarcely worse than other media, were the main target of bitter public criticism for their distorted reporting for the government in the early 1980s." Editorials called for abolition of the Basic Press Act and related practices, a bill was unsuccessfully introduced in the National Assembly to the same end, and a public campaign to withhold compulsory viewers' fees in protest against censorship by the KBS network received widespread press attention. By the summer of 1986, even the ruling party was responding to public opinion.

F) The political liberalization of the late 1980s brought a loosening of press restraints and a new generation of journalists more willing to investigate sensitive subjects, such as the May 1980 Kwangju incident. Roh's eight-point declaration of June 29, 1987, provided for "a free press, including allowing newspapers to base correspondents in provincial cities and withdrawing security officials from newspaper offices." The South Korean media began a rapid expansion. Seoul papers expanded their coverage and resumed the practice of stationing correspondents in provincial cities. Although temporarily still under the management of a former Blue House press spokesman, the MBC television network, a commercial network that had been under control of the state-managed KBS since 1980, resumed independent broadcasting. The number of radio broadcast stations grew from 74 in 1985 to 111 (including both AM and FM stations) by late 1988 and 125 by late 1989. The number of periodicals rose as the government removed restrictions on the publishing industry.

There also were qualitative changes in the South Korean media. The Christian Broadcasting System, a radio network, again began to broadcast news as well as religious programming in 1987. In the same year, the government partially lifted a long-standing ban on the works of North Korean artists and musicians, many of whom were of South Korean origin. A newspaper run by dissident journalists, Hangyore sinmun, began publication in 1988. A number of other new dailies also appeared in 1988. Many of the new weekly and monthly periodicals bypassed the higher profits of the traditional general circulation magazines to provide careful analyses of political, economic, and national security affairs to smaller, specialized audiences. Observers noted a dramatic increase in press coverage of previously taboo subjects such as political- military relations, factions within the military, the role of security agencies in politics, and the activities of dissident organizations. Opinion polls dealing with these and other sensitive issues also began to appear with increasing regularity. Journalists at several of the Seoul dailies organized trade unions in late 1987 and early 1988 and began to press for editorial autonomy and a greater role in newspaper management.

In 1989 South Korea's four largest dailies, Hanguk ilbo, Chungang ilbo, Choson ilbo, and Tonga ilbo, had a combined circulation of more than 6.5 million. The antiestablishment Hangyore sinmun (One Nation News), had 450,000 readers--less than the major dailies or smaller papers like Kyonghyang sinmun or Soul sinmun, but larger than four more specialized economic dailies. All the major dailies were privately owned, except for the government- controlled Hanguk ilbo. Several other daily publications had specialized readerships among sport fans and youth. Two English-language newspapers, the government-subsidized Korea Herald and the Korea Times, which was affiliated with the independent Soul sinmun, were widely read by foreign embassies and businesses. A Chinese-language daily served South Korea's small Chinese population.

The Yonhap News Agency provided domestic and foreign news to government agencies, newspapers, and broadcasters. Yonhap also provided news on South Korean developments in English by computerized transmission via the Asia-Pacific News Network. Additional links with world media were facilitated by four satellite link stations. The International Broadcast Center established in June 1988 served some 10,000 broadcasters for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The government's KBS radio network broadcast overseas in twelve languages. Two private radio networks, the Asia Broadcasting Company and Far East Broadcasting Company, served a wide regional audience that included the Russian Far East, China, and Japan.

The South Korean government also supported Naewoe Press, which dealt solely with North Korean affairs. Originally a propaganda vehicle that followed the government line on unification policy issues, Naewoe Press became increasingly objective and moderate in tone in the mid-1980s in interpreting political, social, and economic developments in North Korea. Vantage Point, an English-language publication of Naewoe Press, provided in-depth studies of North Korean social, economic, and political developments.

G) Except for two newspapers (one in Korean and one in English) that the government owned or controlled and the state television network, ownership of the media was for the most part distinct from political or economic power. One exception was the conservative daily, Chungang ilbo. Under the close oversight of its owner, the late Samsung Group founder and multimillionaire Yi Pyong-ch'ol, the paper and its affiliated TBC television network generally supported the Park government during the 1970s. Its relations with the government became strained after 1980, however, when Chun Doo Hwan forced TBC to merge with KBS. A journalists' strike at Chungang ilbo in 1989, in one of many similar incidents at the major South Korean newspapers, won even greater management and editorial independence.

Most of South Korea's major newspapers derived their financial support from advertising and from their affiliation with major publishing houses. The Tonga Press, for example, published not only the prestigious daily Tonga ilbo, but also a variety of other periodicals, including a newspaper for children, the general circulation monthly Sin tonga (New East Asia), a women's magazine, and specialized reference books and magazines for students. Throughout the post-war period, Tonga ilbo has been noted for its opposition sympathies. Now, it is considered more conservative and “pro-establishmentarian”, mainly due to rather biased reporting on labour movement (the newspaper is still owned by Kim Sŏngsu’s family, known as one of the richest and most influential among the country’s big capitalists).

South Korea's principal anti-establishment newspaper, Hangyore sinmun, began publication in May 1988. It was founded by dissident journalists who were purged by the government in the early 1970s or in 1980; many of the paper's reporters and editorial staff left positions on mainstream newspapers to join the new venture. The structure and approach of the paper reflected the founders' view that in the past the South Korean news media had been too easily co-opted by the government. The paper had a human rights department as well as a mass media department to keep an eye on the government's press policy and to critique the ideological and political biases of other newspapers. The paper's nationalism and interest in national reunification were symbolically represented in the logo, which depicted Lake Ch'onji at the peak of Mount Paektu in North Korea; in the exclusive use of the Korean alphabet (which succeeded Tongnip sinmun’s tradition); and in the type font in which the paper's name was printed, which dated from a famous Korean publication of the eighteenth century, before the country became divided. The paper was printed horizontally, rather than vertically like other Seoul dailies. In other innovations, the Hangyore simmun relied on sales revenues, private contributions, and the sale of stock, rather than advertising from major corporations, in line with its claim to be "the first newspaper in the world truly independent of political power and large capital." The newspaper came under increasing government pressures in 1989.

South Korea also had extensive and well-developed visual media. The first Korean film was produced in 1919, and cinemas subsequently were built in the larger cities. The result of the spread of television sets and radios was the dissemination of a homogenized popular culture and the impingement of urban values on rural communities.

NORTH KOREA

Although Article 53 of the constitution states that North Korean citizens have freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, and demonstration, such activities are permitted only in support of government and KWP objectives. Other articles of the constitution require citizens to follow the socialist norms of life; for example, a collective spirit takes precedence over individual political or civil liberties.

Domestic media censorship is strictly enforced, and deviation from the official government line is not tolerated. The regime prohibits listening to foreign media broadcasts, and violators are reportedly subject to severe punishment. Senior party cadres, however, have good access to the foreign media. No external media are allowed free access to North Korea, but an agreement to share in Japan's telecommunications satellites was reached in September 1990.

Newspapers, broadcasting, and other mass media are major vehicles for information dissemination and political propaganda. Although most urban households have radios and some have television sets, neither radios nor televisions can be tuned to anything other than official programming. Only some 10 percent of the radios and 30 percent of the televisions are in private households. Government control extends to artistic and academic circles, and visitors report that the primary function of plays, movies, books, and the performing arts is to contribute to the cult of personality surrounding Kim Il Sung.

The media is government controlled. As of mid-1993, there were eleven television stations, approximately two dozen AM stations, ten FM stations, eight domestic short-wave stations, and a powerful international short-wave station. The latter broadcast in English, French, Spanish, German, and several Asian languages. Korean Central Broadcasting Station and P'yongyang Broadcasting Station (Radio P'yongyang) are the central radio stations; there are also several local stations and stations for overseas broadcasts.

A number of newspapers are published. Nodong sinmun (Workers' Daily), the organ of the party Central Committee, claimed a circulation of approximately 1.5 million as of 1988. K lloja (The Worker), the theoretical organ of the party Central Committee, claimed a circulation of about 300,000 readers. Minju Chosŏn (Democratic Korea) is the government newspaper, and Nodong ch’ŏngnyŏn (Working Youth) is the newspaper of the SWYL. There also are specialized newspapers for teachers, the army, and railway workers.

The Korean Central News Agency (Chosŏn Chungang T’ongsinsa-- KCNA) is the primary agency for gathering and disseminating news. KCNA publishes the daily paper Korean Central News (Chosŏn Chungang T'ongsin), Photographic News (Sajin T'ongsin), and the Korean Central Yearbook (Chosŏn Chungang Yŏnbo). KCNA issues daily press releases in English, Russian, French, and Spanish; newscasts in these languages are beamed overseas. The Foreign Languages Press Group issues the monthly magazine Korea Today and the weekly newspaper the P'yongyang Times published in English, Spanish, and French.

English side of South Korea’s notoriously ultra-rightist newspaper, Chosŏn ilbo: http://english.chosun.com/

More moderate, but still very conservative, Tonga ilbo: http://english.donga.com/