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A Free Press in South Korea: Temporary Phenomenon or Permanent Fixture?Author(s): Kyu Ho Youm and Michael B. SalwenSource: Asian Survey, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Mar., 1990), pp. 312-325Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2644568 .

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A FREE PRESS IN SOUTH KOREA

TemporaryPhenomenonor

Permanent Fixture?

Kyu Ho Youm and Michael B. Salwen

South Korea, which has a history of strongman rule

under authoritarian regimes since its founding in 1948, is flush with thehope that democracy has at last arrived. This sanguine mood stems from

the democratic policies initiated by President Roh Tae Woo and from anumber of recent political reformsaimed at breakingwhat has been called

Korea's "cycle of authoritarianrule."' Roh, while chairman of the ruling

Democratic Justice Party (DJP) and a presidentialcandidate, ushered in

an era of open politics with a package of democratic reforms in his June

29, 1987, declaration, issued at a time of worsening antigovernmentdem-

onstrations. Among his proposed reforms was recognition of a free presswith no governmental interference.

There is no question that a number of positive changes subsequently

have taken place in South Korean press-government relations. Some of

these have involved structuralchanges in the media industry;others have

been institutional, involving sociopolitical and legal systems affecting the

Korean press. As the International Press Institute (IPI) reported in late

1988, "visible and invisible restrictions imposed on the [Korean] press

have been abolished in favor of a greater freedom of information and theright of the people to know has been guaranteed. It is worth asking,

however, whether these changes are firmly entrenched in the South Ko-

rean sociopolitical system and can withstand future political turmoil,

should turmoil occur. The brief historical survey of the South Korean

Kyu Ho Youm and Michael B. Salwen are Assistant Professors in

the School of Communication, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.

? 1990 by The Regents of the University of California

1. Sung-joo Han, "South Korea: Politics in Transition," in Democracy in Developing

Countries: Asia, Larry Diamond, Juan J. Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset, eds. (Boulder,

Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1989), p. 292.



KYU HO YOUM AND MICHAEL B. SALWEN 313

press that follows leaves one to ponder Gastil's observation that "the liber-

alizations that occur from time to time in authoritarian or totalitarian

states, only to be followed by reinvigorated repressions, are best under-

stood as 'grants' of political favor rather than acceptance of political or

civil rights."3

This article considers whether the current state of press freedom under

President Roh is a temporary phenomenon in the traditionally volatile

body politic of South Korea or a permanent fixture of a newly burgeoning

Korean democracy. Three questions will be pursued. First, what socio-

political and legal reforms have been introduced to expand press freedom

since Roh's June 1987 declaration; second, how has the press changed as a

result of these sociopolitical and legal reforms; and finally, what structural

and institutional changes in the press have put it on a more solid footing asthe Fourth Estate of a "democratic" South Korea?

A Troubled Press: 1948-1987Koreans were first exposed to the Western tradition of press freedom dur-

ing 1945-48 under the U.S. Army Military Government in Korea follow-

ing World War II. But while it introduced the libertarian concept of press

freedom, the USAMGIK was forced to retrench from its own stated prin-

ciples and impose several authoritarian measures, including censorship of

the communist press. The First Republic under Syngman Rhee, estab-

lished in 1948, guaranteed freedom of expression as one of South Korea's

basic constitutional rights and during the first half of Rhee's 12-year rule,

considerable press freedom was allowed. But as the sociopolitical strains

on his presidency increased in the late 1950s, Rhee became more authori-

tarian in his relationship with the press. Indeed, he went so far as to enact

the repressive National Security Act and closed the then leading opposi-

tion paper, Kyunghyang Shinmun. The Rhee regime ended during the

popular student uprising of April 1960 and was replaced by a parliamen-

tary system under Premier Chang Myon. Democracy flourished and the

press under Chang was accorded a degree of freedom usually found in the

Western democracies. This, however, did not continue for long; Chang

was overthrown in a military coup led by General Park Chung Hee in

1961.

Park, who ruled South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979,

was obsessed with modernizing the country, and he would not tolerate a

critical press challenging his grandiose economic plans for Korean self-

reliance. The coup, in part, was a result of Park's concern with the social



314 ASIAN SURVEY, VOL. XXX, NO. 3, MARCH 1990

chaos during the Chang regime, for which he believed the free and "cha-

otic" press was at least partially to blame. In a speech before Korean

newspapermen in April 1966, Park warned against attacks on the govern-

ment and urged the press to work with the government in "developing aconstructive attitude with which to meet the demands of the new age and

the new situation."4 To accomplish his economic development goals, Park

often mobilized the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) to con-

duct extralegal activities, and he invoked a series of emergency decrees to

muzzle the press.

After Park was assassinated in October 1979, the press went through a

short period of liberalization until General Chun Doo Hwan, backed by

the army, consolidated his takeover of the civilian government in May

1980. Chun carried out an unprecedented "purification campaign" against

the press, forcing a sweeping structural reorganization of the mass media.

As in the Park era, suppression of the press was a crucial element of polit-

ical power and Chun established systematic control of the news media

through daily "press guidelines," some very specific as, for example, di-

recting the press to label antigovernment protesters as "procommunist."

One observer wrote in 1986 that "the hopeless situation facing the Korean

press at present will remain in the future unless there is a sweeping change

in the Korean socio-political and legal system. Unfortunately, the chances

for change are not good as long as President Chun is in power."5

Sociopolitical and LegalReforms in Korea

The new South Korean Constitution, as revised in October 1987, explicitly

prohibits censorship of speech and the press while guaranteeing freedom of

expression, which should be a step toward strengthening press freedom in

South Korea. On the other hand, the new Constitution, like its predeces-

sor of 1980, provides that standards concerning facilities of news services,

broadcasting stations, and newspapers should be statutorily set.

In his June 1987 declaration, Roh noted the restrictive impact on the

press of the Basic Press Act of 1980 and suggested that it should

"promptly be either extensively revised or abolished and replaced by a dif-

ferent law."6 The act was repealed in November 1987 and replaced by the

4. Shin Bum Shik, comp., Major Speeches by Korea's Park Chung Hee (Seoul: Hollym

Corporation, 1970), p. 99.

5. Kyu Ho Youm, "Press Freedom Under Constraints: The Case of South Korea," Asian

Survey 26 (August 1986), p. 982.




Act on Registration of Periodicals and the Broadcast Act, legislating im-provements in several respects. Under the new periodicals law, the Minis-try of Culture and Information (MOCI) must get a court order to revoke

the registration of a periodical. Among the grounds for revocation areregistration obtained "by deceit or other unlawful means" and a finding

that the publication "repeatedly and flagrantly" infringes the originalobjectives of the publication at the time of registration.7 However, theministry is still authorized to suspend publication of a newspaper for threeto six months if it violates any of the statutory provisions for suspension.The registration process also is less subject to arbitrarydecision under thenew press law, which states unambiguously that "when a periodical is reg-istered [in accordance with the statutory requirements], the [MOCI] shallpromptly deliver a certificate of registration" (emphasis added).8 Accord-

ingly, anyone who meets the registration requirements s legally allowed tostart a print media business. But the "facilities requirements"in the newlaw-for example, general daily newspapers must be equipped with rotarypresses capable of printing at least 20,000 copies of a minimum four-pagetabloid per hour-result in exclusion of financially weak publications, asdid the identical provision of the old press act.

The legislative reforms initiated by the Roh administration led to revi-

sion of the Criminal Code in late 1988, abolishing Article 104-2, Crime ofSlander Against the State, which provided a penalty of up to seven yearsimprisonment for a Korean national who defamed the state and its consti-tutional institutions to the foreign press in and outside of Korea. Even

though the number of criminal convictions under the provision was lowcompared with other indirect press laws, Article 104-2 was an effectiveweapon for Park and Chun in punishing Koreans for expressing anti-

government sentiments to foreign journalists; indeed, the Supreme Court

of Korea ruled in 1983 that any and all acts of defamation against the statewould violate the code. A more widely known case involvingthe provisionwas precipitated by a New York Times interview, published August 2,1987, with a leading Korean student dissident who denounced the violentcrackdown on antigovernment demonstrations, comparing the South Ko-rean governmentto Hitler's Germany. The student was arrestedfor slan-

dering the state. Several similar instances vividly illustrate the repressiveeffect of the seditious libel provision upon freedom of the press, and its

abolition represents another positive development in the South Korean




government's avowed intention to "stimulate the constructive criticism ofthe public" as a foundation for democratic progress.9

Two American observers pointed out that Koreans should be aware of

the "indispensabilityof institutional reforms made possible, but not guar-anteed, by the new constitution" to transform their country from a dicta-torship to a democracy.10 Among the institutional reformsaffecting pressfreedom have been those that restructure the government through restora-tion of the checks-and-balancessystem among the executive branch, theNational Assembly, and the courts, which reduce the likelihood of arbi-trary or grossly unjust decisions.

In connection with the separation of powers principle in a functioning

democracy, one journalism scholar noted the relationship between pressfreedom and the independence of courts thus: "[A] nation's press systemis free, not necessarily because of constitutional guarantee . . . but because

an unintimidated judiciary protects the press against government en-

croachment."1I In this context, it should be noted that the Korean courtshave recently made visible efforts to ensure that justice is guaranteed inSouth Korea's emergingdemocracy, the result of an opposition-dominatedNational Assembly and a more outspoken press. The National Assemblyconfirmed Lee Ii Kyu, widely known as a principledjurist, as the ChiefJustice of Korea after rejectingthe government'sfirst nominee in the wakeof a "judicialcrisis" involving vocal demands by more than 300judges for

judicial independenceand a restructuringof the SupremeCourt. The Ko-rean press devoted extensive coverage to the events and to the judiciary'sdemands.

Judicial independence in South Korea is becoming more evident. Illus-trative of the change is the increasinginvocation by the courts of the rightof judicial review. In November 1988 the SupremeCourt ruled that por-

tions of the Act for the Protection of Society violated the Constitution andreferredthe matter to the Constitution Court for final determination. TheSupremeCourt's ruling marked the first time since 1972 that it had struckdown any laws. More significantly, the court questionedthe validity of theAct for the Protection of Society, which had been held constitutional bythe courts nine times since it was enacted in 1980. One month after theSupreme Court ruling, the Seoul Court of Appeals ruled that Article 3 of

9. June 29 Declaration and Legislative Reforms (Seoul: Legislative Administration

Agency, 1989), p. 67.

10. James M. West and Edward J. Baker, "The 1987 Constitutional Reforms in SouthKorea: Electoral Processes and Judicial Independence," Harvard Human Rights Yearbook1




the Act on Assembly and Demonstration was unconstitutionally vague

and overbroad in that it prohibits "assembly or demonstration which shall

be greatly feared to cause social unrest."12 This was further unmistakable

testimony to the increasing independence of the Korean courts; in the past,laws on political rights or civil liberties had almost never been subject to

judicial challenge.13

In another case pointing to the gradual restoration of judicial authority,

a military court in October 1988 convicted military officers accused of as-

saulting a newspaper editor for publishing a negative story about the Ko-

rean military. The fact that a military court ruled against military officers

was seen as a major breakthrough. The case involved publication of a

newspaper article titled "Military Culture Should Be Eradicated," which

argued that a military culture still pervaded South Korea despite President

Roh's promises for democratic reforms. The military court held that the

assault on the newspaper's editor caused a social controversy and under-

mined the trust and prestige of the military among the people. 14

In the context of a more independent judiciary and an opposition-domi-

nated National Assembly acting as a balance against the executive branch,

it is no wonder that the press control mechanisms of the Chun regime have

been abolished or reformed by Roh. The Bureau of Information Policy

(BIP), which during Chun's rule was in charge of issuing numerous daily

press guidelines, has been abolished and no more coercive instructions are

being issued to the press as to what should and should not be reported.

The BIP's demise also led to the removal from the news media of govern-

ment agents who were in charge of overseeing press activities. Finally, the

press card system, which only permitted journalists with professional ac-

creditation from the government to be employed in the news media, was

eliminated.

New Issues in an Improving AtmosphereSince mid-1987, when the South Korean government entered a heady pe-

riod of Korean-style glasnost, the press has stretched the limits of freedom.

As a result, news coverage of previously taboo subjects has now become

routine. There is little restriction upon media coverage of antigovernrment

activities, let alone open criticism of President Roh and his party. Most

illustrative of the exercise of press freedom was the live TV coverage in

1988 of the National Assembly hearings on the irregularities of the Fifth

12. Hankuk Ilbo (U.S. edition), December 29, 1989.




Republic, enquiring into the corruption and wrongdoing of the Chun ad-

ministration.The liberalization under Roh has led the Korean news media to trans-

form itself from a docile mouthpiece to an increasingly aggressive entity inline with the changing sociopolitics of South Korea. In fact, change in the

degree of press freedom is occurring at such a dramatic pace as to make

some people wary of possible negative ramifications. The bolder, more en-

terprisingnews coverage, however, is far from being a complete picture of

the changedstatus of the South Korean media. The explosive expansionof

the media industryis another sweeping departurefrom the past, especiallyin light of the fact that not a single general interest daily newspaper was

registered during the entire term of the Chun administration.15 The rapidincrease in the number of newspapersin 1988 illustrates the government's

view of the press in the "era of democracy." By the end of April 1989, a

total of 65 daily newspapers were being published in South Korea, morethan a 100% increase since the enactment of the new press law in late1987. The sharp increasein the number of daily newspapers is only part ofthe overall astonishing expansion of the print media. Since June 1987,when Roh proposed expanded press freedom, 3,728 periodicalshave beenregisteredwith the MOCI for publication, an increase of 1,492.16 Weekly

and monthly periodicals have been registeredas well as daily papers. Inthe past, few applicantstried to register publicationsbecausethey expectedto be rejected,but now that the new press law requiresthe MOCI to ap-prove registrations as long as applicants satisfy the basic statutory require-

ments, most of the procedural as well as political obstacles have beenlifted.

One of the new daily newspapers,Han-kyoreh,deservesparticular atten-tion because it is regarded as a test case of Roh's willingness to acceptfreedom of the press as indispensable to the new democratic politics ofSouth Korea. The paper, which amassed its original capital of $7 millionfrom donations during a nationwide campaign, was founded in December1987 by a group of dissidentjournalists to rectify the notion that the Ko-rean press "has become [the] private possession of a few people or institu-

15. In June 1985 the Chun administration approved the registration of the Daily Sports

Seoul as a "special daily newspaper" to concentrate on sports, leisure, and culture in prepara-

tion for the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Throughout its seven-year

rule, however, the Chun regime would not register a new "general daily newspaper," main-

taining its basic press policy of structurally minimizing critical media coverage of the govern-

ment. The Basic Press Act distinguished a general from a special daily newspaper in that the




tional journalism under the control of political power." 17 The first issue of

the paper was published on May 15, 1988, after a lengthy delay in the

government's issuance of its registration certificate. The Han-kyoreh de-

clared in its code of ethics that it will "serve as a critic of injustice andiniquity and investigate the human rights violations by the political force."

Besides its center-left editorial stance on socioeconomic and political is-

sues, the newspaper is distinctive from others in several respects: it uses

Hangul (Korean alphabet) instead of the mixture of Chinese characters

with the Korean alphabet that is still prevalent in most daily papers; it

strictly prohibits "envelope journalism," the practice of receiving payment

for publishing or withholding stories, still openly practiced by a number of

Korean journalists; and to demonstrate its structural commitment to de-

fending human rights and the press, the paper maintains "human rights"

and "mass media" departments. As the "most critical above-ground"

newspaper in Korea, the Han-kyoreh had a circulation of 440,000 as of

June 1989, and is emerging rapidly as a progressive alternative to the

largely conservative newspapers that have refrained from criticizing au-

thority.

The recent restructuring of the print media is the most visible outcome

of Roh's press policy, but equally important is the so-called "internal de-

mocratization" of the Korean press itself. 18 An increasing number of Ko-

rean newspapers recognize that press freedom carries little meaningful

value unless it is supported by independence of editorial decision making

from both internal and external pressures. To ensure separation between

the editorial department and management, the Han-kyoreh and many

other newspapers have reporters directly involved in. deciding on the over-

all editorial policy of their newspapers, with managing editors elected by

reporters or selected from those recommended by them. The stronger

voice of the editorial departments of an increasing number of South Ko-

rean newspapers results from reactivated labor unions of journalists. The

new status of the media unions is in stark contrast to the persecution of

labor unions during the Park and Chun regimes.

Notwithstanding the positive developments in the Korean press since

mid-1987, a number of issues have arisen. Some are far from new as long

dormant issues have come out into the open; others are, to a large extent,

17. Ibid., May 15, 1988.

18. Media scholar John Merrill, in his discussion of "journalistic freedom" as distin-

guished from "press freedom," states that "journalistic freedom concerns a relationship be-

tween the journalists working for a news medium and the executives and editors of that news




new in that they were rarely a source of concern to the press. The formerrelate to increasing violence by nongovernmental organizations againstcertain journalists and publications, and the corrupt practices of somejournalists. The latter stem from a variety of pressures on the press ex-

erted by sociopolitical groups not directly connected with the ruling au-thorities.

In March 1989 a group of disabled veterans forcefully entered the build-ing of KukjeShinmun, a provincial daily, and injured 20 of its employeesafter the paper reportedthat the Pusan Public Transportation Corporationhad awarded several profitable projects to organizations in an arbitraryfashion reminiscent of the Fifth Republic. The veteranswere upset by thestory because their veterans village had a contract with the corporation.

The physical violence was deplored by the Korean Journalists Associationas "an unprecedented intrusion of press freedom."19 Korean journalistsalso have been increasingly subject to attacks by the riot police while cov-ering numerousantigovernmentor labor-relateddemonstrations. Anotherissue facing the freer Korean press is the growing incidence of "envelope

journalism." According to a recent Korean Press Institute survey of 700

journalists on the question of their professional ethics, 93% said they re-

ceived chonji, or monetary gifts, from their news sources.20 Of course,

chonji journalism is far from new, but what is noteworthy today is that thepublic has begun to voice concern about an increasingly blatant abuse of

press freedom in total disregard of press responsibility.21 Consequently,

the government has taken action to deal with the illegal practice; for exam-

ple, in March 1989 the Seoul prosecutor's office arrested several reporters

for extorting about $40,000 from more than 20 chemical factory owners in

exchange for promising not to expose their alleged violations of an anti-

pollution law.

Among the new pressures facing the Korean press is that exerted bypublic interest organizations with no direct connection to the government.

One government official was quoted as saying that while the Korean press

"is now free from the coercive pressure of the government . .. it is not free

from the pressure of a particular political organization or interest group.

19. Hankuk Ilbo (U.S. edition), March 6, 1989.

20. Han-kyorehShinmun (U.S. edition), November 4, 1989; also Choo Uhn Kim, "Let's

Not Accept Chonji," Wolgan Chosun, June 1989, p. 447. In a paper, Youngchul Yoon esti-

mated that typical chonji would range from $100-200 ("Political Transition and Press Re-form in South Korea," presented at the International Communication Association

conference, San Francisco, May 1989, p. 27, n.18).

21. Pseudo-journalistsas Seen ThroughActual Cases (Seoul: Korean Ministry of Culture

and Information, 1989), pp. 6-7 (noting public concern about the increasing "violence of




The Korean press is fiercely aggressive in criticizing President Roh Tae

Woo and his government. But it is passive in its criticism of the two

Kims."22 In a similar vein, an opposition national assemblyman deplored

the "violent" pressure of special interest groups and political organizationson the Korean news media, disrupting autonomous news reporting.23

Since South Korea has a long history of a timid press that rarely reported

on controversial social and political issues, these groups and organizations

react angrily to a suddenly assertive press.

The recent dispute between the liberal opposition Party for Peace and

Democracy (PPD) and the Chosun Ilbo is a case in point. The unparal-

leled tit-for-tat between the PPD and the country's largest daily newspa-

per, which even attracted attention from foreign media, resulted from

publication of a story in Choogan Chosun, a news weekly owned by

Chosun Ilbo. The weekly reported that during a European tour, several

PPD assemblymen, accompanying the party president, Kim Dae Jung, be-

haved in a manner beneath their dignity. Eight of the lawmakers filed a

libel complaint with the Seoul district prosecutor's office, charging that the

article "disseminated false facts for no justifiable reasons and damaged the

reputational interests" of Kim and the lawmakers. The charge, later

dropped, is a criminal offense in South Korea. In a separate civil suit

against the Chosun Ilbo, the lawmakers sought $12.8 million in damages

and demanded the newspaper publish an apology.24 The PPD did not stop

with legal proceedings, it also launched a boycott of the Chosun Ilbo and

prohibited Chosun reporters from entering PPD headquarters.

The dispute between the most powerful opposition party and the daily

represents a different kind of pressure on the Korean press. Ironically, it

also indicates how authoritarian some self-styled "liberal" opposition lead-

ers are in their views about press freedom. The other leading opposition

leader, Kim Young Sam, in a 1987 statement said he supports press free-dom "as long as the reporters tell the truth," adding that Korean journal-

ists "would probably need 'guidelines' from any new government to help

them do their job."'25 For a politician who has valiantly striven for free-

dom of the South Korean press for more than 20 years, Kim Young Sam's

remarks sound like Chun defining the parameters of press freedom.

22. Chosun Ilbo (U.S. edition), October 24, 1989.

23. Ibid.

24. Chosun Ilbo, March 9, October 19, 1989; Hankuk Ilbo, March 14, 1989 (all U.S. edi-




Further Steps to Institutionalizea Free Press

There is no denying that the South Korean press has come a long way in

discarding its image as a mouthpiece of government. Now, too, the pressis becoming a more credible alternative to the so-called "groundless rumorpress" that flourished as a source of information beforeand duringChun'spresidency. Notwithstanding several significant changes since PresidentRoh took office in 1988, further legislative measures are needed to ensure

that press freedom will become institutionalized and will be maintained

after Roh leaves office. An Americanjournalist recently wrote: "This is anation of growing freedom, but not one of laws. It has visions of democ-

racy, but few institutions to guarantee it."26 Of course, as one constitu-tional law scholar observed,"the press law of a particular country is not somuch determined by the existence of a particular type of constitutional

commitment, or by the presence of a special press statute, as by the partic-ular political philosophy which animates it."27 Nevertheless, a numberofdraconianundemocratic statutes and regulationscombined with the tradi-

tionally authoritarian political culture have undoubtedly contributed toconstraining press freedomin South Korea, and the repressive laws, which

have long been used by the ruling authorities to legitimize their suppres-sion of the press, should be abolished or drastically revised.Among the laws incompatible with the free press principle of a more

democratic South Korea is the National SecurityAct. It is understandablethat in the unique geopolitical situation on the divided Korean Peninsula asecurity law is required to protect the nation against internal and externalthreats; the problem is that the law is not necessarily used to protect thestate from such threats. More often than not, it has been employed by past

governments to protect "political security" interests, which in part is re-lated to the vague language of the law. In defining the activities subject to

it, the act stipulates:

Any personwho has benefitedhe anti-State rganization y way of praising,encouraging,orsiding withor throughother means, the activities of an anti-State

organization,ts memberor a personwhohad been under nstruction f suchorganization,hall be punishedby penalservitude or not more than sevenyears.28

26. Susan Chira, "Korea's Road to Democracy: Paved with Contrary Legacy," New York

Times, March 13, 1989, p. 1.

27. Pnina Lahav, "Conclusion: An Outline for a General Theory of Press Law in Democ-

racy," in Press Law in Modern Democracies, Pnina Lahav, ed. (New York: Longman, 1985),




Although the government now interprets the "anti-State organization" asreferring to North Korea alone, the vague phrase, "praising,encouraging,or siding with or through other means," may still provide a legal loophole

for authorities to punish constitutionally protected as well as unprotectedactivities. One recent application of the law to the press concerned LeeYoung Hee of the Han-kyoreh editorial staff, who planned to visit NorthKorea secretly for purposes of news gathering.29 He was convicted of at-tempting to escape to North Korea and sentenced to 18 months in prisonwith a stay of execution for two years. Another case involved the pressconducting a telephone interview with a South Korean dissident studentwho was in North Korea in July 1989 attending the World Festival ofYouth and Students in open defiance of the Seoul government's ban on thetrip. The government stated that such interviews would constitute viola-tion of the security act. These recent instances of applying or threateningto apply the security law to the press are ironic in that the governmentalready has decided to revise the law.

The International Press Institute years ago noted that "the entirely sat-isfactory law from the point of view of the press is unfortunately the excep-tion rather than the rule. By and large these [press] laws . . . contain

clauses which are a serious handicap to freedom of expression."30 The

current Korean press law, though somewhat improved over its predeces-sor, serves as a good example. It still retains registration and facilitiesrequirements, and these severely regulate press freedom. Making approvalof registrationscontingent upon whether a prospective publisher alreadypossesses the highly expensive printing equipment that is needed, renderspublicationopportunitiesvirtually beyond reach for a number of potentialpublishers. Although the new press law does not allow the MOCI as muchdiscretion as the old law did, the ministry is still authorized to suspend

registration for three to six months if a publicationviolates the registrationrequirements. All in all, Korean press law is more inclined toward regula-tion of press freedom than toward protection. The regulatory law obvi-ously goes contrary to the zeitgeist of a politically advancing Korea.Indeed, as if to prove that the law is not sufficient for institutionalizingpress freedom in Korea, some 40 public hearings were held in 1988 thatfocused on how to improve the press-relatedlaws.31

As Korea steadily moves toward a liberal democracy, the press will ex-

perience a number of changes. The eventual evolution of a free Korean

29. Hankuk Ilbo (U.S. edition), September 29, 1989.

30. IPI, Government Pressures on the Press (Zurich: International Press Institute, 1955), p.

26.




press may lead to an emergence of an "equal-contender"or "antagonist/adversary" relationship between the press and government, depending

upon the sociopolitical circumstances. The days in which the South Ko-rean press served as a "voluntary servant" or a "forced slave" may have

passed,32and in this context there ought to be a soul-searchingexamina-tion of the new press-government relationship. In South Korea, freedom

of the press has been traditionally related to freedomfrom governmentalrestraints; this passive notion should now be changed to the positive free-

domfor democratizing Korea.If the press is to play a positive role by contributingto an informed and

politically active electorate in a democracy, the governmentshould go fur-

ther than abolishing or revising suppressive laws; it should establish insti-

tutional mechanisms for positively enhancing press freedom. Thus, thefreedom of information concept is worth exploring. Indeed, the old Basic

Press Act recognized it as a right of the press, but it was nothing more

than an empty phrase with no practical value because of its several vagueand broad exemptions. Access to information should be the rule rather

than the exception; there should be as few exemptions as possible and,when needed, they should be specificand justified by the government. The

concept would then carry practical meaning for the press in its role of

providing the public with information beyond that selectively released bythe government. Closely related to the open records concept is access tosessions of the legislature and other elected bodies, regulatory hearings,and so on. Obviously, if the press is to serve as a watchdog on behalf ofthe public, reportersought to be guaranteedsome degree of access to themeetings of public bodies. Unfortunately, this has rarely been the case in

South Korea. What is needed is a comprehensive "sunshine" statute with

carefully crafted exceptions, modeled after the open-meetings laws of the

United States.33 Exceptions for closed meetings ought to be statutorilyspecified and justified. The adoption of an open meetings law will signifi-

cantly contributeto the development of democratic politics by making theSouth Korean government more accessible to people through the press.

If the trend of a feistier Korean press since late 1987 continues, there isa strong possibility that investigativejournalism will emerge in South Ko-rea. Among the many issues facing potentially enterprisingKorean muck-rakersin the days to come will be how to protect their confidentialsources.

One positive approach to dealing with the issue would be to embrace theshield law concept as more than a sugarcoatedphrase, which it was under

32. John C. Merrill and S. Jack Odell, Philosophy and Journalism (New York: Longman,

1983), p. 152.



have protective mechanisms to give reporters the right to protect their

sources, putting the Korean press in a better position to serve the public.

ConclusionsThe democratization process launched by President Roh Tae Woo has

brought about a number of significant developments for the traditionally

authoritarian South Korean press. The amended Constitution is more ex-

plicit than its predecessor in guaranteeing press freedom by enumeratingprohibitions against censorship, and the new press legislation is an im-

provement over the repealed Basic Press Act in limiting government au-

thority to revoke registration of a publication. Nevertheless, the law still

retains several restrictive provisions that obviously do not square with a

liberal democracy. The abolition or revision of the repressive press stat-

utes, both direct and indirect, will contribute to promoting a free and in-

dependent press. In the context of the newly defined government-press

relationship,however, the passive concept of press freedom is not suffi-

cient. The press should take an active role in promoting the democratiza-

tion process.

Currently, the Korean press is subject to few direct coercive pressures

from the government. This increasingly salubrious environment largely

stems from the gradual institutionalization of the separation of powers be-

tween the executive branch under Roh, the opposition-dominated National

Assembly, and the now emboldened judiciary. Amid the numerous en-

couraging changes, a new set of issues is emerging with which the press

must deal. These include the mushrooming number of newspapers and

other publications, the unethical practice of "envelope journalism," and

the pressure exerted by special interest groups rather than the government.

Freedom of the press is slowly but steadily becoming institutionalized as

democratization continues in South Korea, and there is a strong indication

that it is being accepted by the government as an important element of

Korean democracy. If the past history of turbulent politics in South Ko-

rea is any guide, however, there is always a possibility that President Roh's

courageous democratic movement may not proceed as smoothly as it

should. But the cautious note of optimism about evolving press freedom is

closely related to Roh's remarkably consistent adherence to his promise to

open a new chapter in South Korea's political history.

a free press in south korea

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