The year 2001 saw a harsh clash between the media and opposition, and the government and ruling party over the freedom of the press, with the latter two wielding the sword of a tax probe against newspapers and the arrest of their owners. This also revealed splits within the country itself over ideology. The war against the media began when President Kim Dae-jung mentioned the need for media reform in his New Year press conference on January 11, stressing that there was substantial pressure for this. On February 1, the National Tax Service notified 23 Seoul based media corporations that it was going to conduct a tax investigation on them. The Fair Trade Commission, then joined in by starting its own probe on "illegal internal dealing" by the companies, and reintroducing newspaper guidelines on February 28.
On June 29, the NTS announced the results of its investigations, which were carried out by more than 1,000 of its staff over 142 days, imposing W505.6 billion in back taxes against the media companies, the highest figure ever for a single business sector. It also reported the major shareholders of the Chosun Ilbo, Donga Ilbo and Kookmin Ilbo, to the prosecution for tax evasion, and the Kookmin Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and Taehan Maeil for violating tax laws. Earlier on June 21, the FTC imposed fines of W24.2 billion on 13 companies.
On July 14, Ahn Kyong-hee, the wife of Kim Byung-kwan, former honorary chairman of the Donga Ilbo committed suicide, which many said was due to pressure from the NTS probe. On August 17, Bang Sang-hoon, the president of the Chosun Ilbo; Kim Byung-kwan; and Cho Hee-joon, the former chairman of the Kookmin Ilbo were arrested and held in detention. Bang said at his first hearing on September 21, that government complaints about criticism in the Chosun Ilbo's editorials and columns had been conveyed to him through many channels before the NTS investigation. He added that after the probe, there were unjustifiable demands made to remove those who wrote the articles, which he rejected, and at which point he knew he would be jailed.
The ruling and opposition parties harshly collided on this issue, with Grand National Party Spokesman Kwon Chul-hyun predicting on February 2; "The critical media will be made scapegoats." GNP member Nam Kyong-pil said on March 16; "Tracing journalists accounts is a serious matter and something the military governments of the past didn't even try to do." United Liberal Democrat Representative Chung Jin-seok asked the government on June 25; "Does it really want the press to be like the Rodong Shinbum?" GNP member Park Chong-ung even went on hunger strike against media suppression, which lasted 20 days.
Millennium Democratic Party Spokesman Kim Young-hwan countered on February 2 that all people had the duty to pay tax and media companies were no exception. On October 16, MDP member Kim Tae-hong praised the government, saying it was practicing a reformative test on the media's transparency.
In early September, a joint investigation team of the International Press Institute and World Association of Newspapers came to Seoul, while on the 21st, 11 representatives of international organizations expressed concern over the government's tax investigation.
Meanwhile representatives of the International Federation of Journalists visited Korea and said that media reform should not be delayed. On October 20, the IPI urged the release of the three detained media owners, at its board meeting.
The Associated Press reported that the jailed three were involved with the newspapers most critical of the government, which had said the tax probe was aimed at choking off the freedom of the press, something the administration denied. Japan's NHK said the arrests invited the criticism that the freedom of the press was being compromised.
Public broadcasters, KBS and MBC, and a certain newspaper, extensively reported the campaign against the major newspapers by some civic groups, revealing a sharp divide within the media. The ruling party also attacked critical newspapers using its broadsheet, while some politicians openly cursed them. Some authors and scholars, including Lee Mun-yol, were accused of distorting theories by other intellectials, showing how deep the split became.
At the start of October a book written by a Hankyoreh reporter who covered Cheong Wa Dae revealed a prominent official saying that the ruling groups would crush critical media groups including the Chosun Ilbo by using a probe into inheritance tax, before the NTS investigation got underway. He added that key NTS members had been replaced with people from the Honam region, the president's power base, to ensure the desired result was obtained. The book essentially proved that the entire tax investigation was a plot by the ruling party to suppress critical media.
(Yoon Young-shin, yyshin@chosun.com)
See our list of related articles titled
"Press Under Siege."
