On the occasion of the Chosun Ilbo's commemoration of the 82nd anniversary of its founding, Wednesday, President Bang Sang-hoon delivered a speech to the media company's employees. He reflected on the trials of the past year, and the recent ruling party members' allegations concerning the newspaper's founder. The following are excerpts of President Bang's speech:
"My fellow colleagues,
This is the 82 anniversary of our company's foundation, but I have to mention allegations regarding the Chosun Ilbo's editing, management and production during the Japanese colonial times. There have been claims that the management at the time compromised with, or succumbed to Japanese government pressure in dubious ways. As a descendant of Kaecho (Bang Eung-mo), who instituted the newspaper's renaissance, and as the current president, I can state clearly that the Chosun Ilbo provided precious news to the people in the Korean language, at a time when Japan forced its language on us mercilessly. It promoted the national sentiment and spirit.
The Chosun Ilbo consistently led a campaign in the distribution of the Korean language and as you all know, famous independence fighters including Han Yong-woon, Hong Myong-hee and Lee Sang-jae helped us do this from within and without. This kind of editorial resistance continued under severe suppression, including censorship of articles and suspension, of sales up until August 1940 when the Chosun Ilbo was forced to close. Looking back, after liberation, I am confident in saying that the Chosun Ilbo and Kaecho played a decisive role in the birth of the Republic of Korea as an independent country.
Those who are unhappy with the Chosun Ilbo's articles and editorials have been slandering the newspaper, in an attempt to destroy our credibility and the honor of our ancestors by distorting history. I would like to re-emphasize that we should not accept such slander nor historical distortion.
My colleagues,
The most basic role of a major shareholder of a newspaper, including me, is to ensure financial independence, enabling it to operate freely without succumbing to pressure from advertisers, or the authorities. I believe the reason we were able to maintain freedom of editing last year, despite the terrible pressure placed upon the media, was because the major shareholders of the Chosun Ilbo established this financial independence. I have always kept in mind that those who really defend the freedom of the press are the ones who produced the newspaper, were loyal to it and read it over the past 82 years.
In 2001, we clearly witnessed and experienced the lies and hypocrisy generated by so-called administrative led reform and government led media reform. Now we have to redefine what is real media reform and demonstrate it to the readers of our newspaper everyday. For this, the Chosun Ilbo should be reborn again, as a newspaper that is heading towards the world and the future. Rather than following the trend of globalization we should be leading it, raising the levels of our articles to that of world class ones. We should encourage our readers to look to the future instead of the past.
I think the behavior and attitude of governments towards the media is always the same. Whether it is a dictatorship, or one backed by a so-called democratization force, governments cannot accept a media that does not support them and either tries to control it or suppress it. However, the Chosun Ilbo will not compromise with, nor kneel before any such authority. To be true to our readers' right to know, we must never fail to monitor and criticize governments. This should not result in a loss of fairness due to past bad experiences, nor should we hold the hands of other competing power groups.
This year there are two major elections. I expect you to concentrate on producing the newspaper so that we can raise our readers' confidence in the Chosun Ilbo's fairness and accuracy."
(Chosun Ilbo President Bang Sang-hoon - March 6, 2002)
See our list of related articles titled
"Press Under Siege."
