The Chosun Ilbo, which is celebrating the 82nd anniversary of its creation, Tuesday, went through a trying time last year. Previous suffering had come from suppression by the occupying Japanese forces, and dictatorial governments, but last year's was more cunning and came from a democratically elected administration, which made it all the more worse. Suppression before was direct and targeted on articles and opinion, but the recent was indirect through the use of a tax investigation and the subtle manipulation of civic groups to maintain pressure.
We learned a new lesson while experiencing this persecution, namely we have to defend the righteous way for journalism. It may sound cliched, but the lesson is like the enlightenment one finds in one's hometown after long travels abroad. Every element in the world has its own raison d' etre and value. Unreasonableness, discord and irrationality happen when these elements lose their meaning and value. Therefore the righteous way for the Chosun Ilbo is a declaration to remain constant with its raison d' etre and value.
There are two paths for the Chosun Ilbo, one as a business and the other as a media company. The former must be pursued through financial independence via transparent management. Last year, the political powers that be were able to use a tax probe as a weapon to suppress critical media, but some of the blame lies with newspapers for letting themselves be put in that position. Previous governments, without exception, used the financial weaknesses of media companies to suppress them. This confirms that without transparent management and financial independence, newspapers will always be vulnerable to political power.
What is the righteous way for a media company? Why do newspapers exist and why do people read them? Newspapers deliver information, express opinions and provide people with the tools to understand the changing world. Through last year's experience, we became aware again that in carrying out its function a newspaper has to have the free spirit of criticism and be distant from power groups. If the Chosun Ilbo had succumbed to the political pressure, then numerous readers would have left us.
With this basic spirit we should incessantly develop accuracy, fairness and integrity. What our readers demand from a newspaper is character and opinions, however a more important thing is responsibility, which takes on even more import in this situation. We are now living in the age of numerous "cyber-media" and a huge amount of information and claims are flowing through the Internet. The positive aspect of this is the diversification of the media, but there is also a negative aspect of irresponsibility due to anonymity. In this situation we feel the related meaning of responsibility carried by traditional newspapers. We will therefore double our efforts for this and the accuracy of our news reports than with the speed of reporting. We have come to understand that we will receive harsh censure should we fail to do this. That is why the Chosun Ilbo is preparing methods to rapidly approach all opposing views and criticism from our readers.
People sometimes point to arrogance and bias among newspapers including the Chosun Ilbo. Arrogance and bias occur when we fail to accept different opinions and claims, and deny them. We clearly announce that we will never see different opinions and approaches as evil. There are many kinds of ideology and spirit that leads the country forward and a healthy society is one where these exist with their own weight. The Chosun Ilbo presents what it sees and seeks consensus, while excluding self-righteousness and dogmatism, which tries to eradicate things that are different. We feel that we have been the victims of political power and some groups wielding their self-righteousness and dogmatism. Based on this the Chosun Ilbo will never shie from providing a forum for diversified views, different from its own.
With this spirit of righteousness, the Chosun Ilbo will march forward to its centennial in 2020. We have survived various ups and downs in the past 82 years and this is not simply out of luck. We recognize the efforts by our predecessors to implement lessons learned from hardship. The Chosun Ilbo will march on with the history of this land, while continually improving through renewed awareness.
(March 5, 2002)
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