Millennium Democratic Party presidential hopeful, Roh Mu-hyun attacked the Chosun Ilbo and Donga Ilbo newspapers in a speech during the Incheon primary race, Saturday, saying that they had pressured him to retract his pledge to limit major shareholders' stock ownership. Roh said the two started to slander him when he refused and called on them "not to interfere in the MDP primaries."
When reporters asked what kind of pressure the newspapers applied, Roh said he took questions asked by their journalists as pressure, while admitting there had been no direct action.
Following the primary, the Chosun Ilbo asked for specific instances of pressure and received an apology from Roh's media advisor, Yoo Jeong-pil, who stated the newspaper had not pressured his candidate. The newspaper issued a statement, Sunday, saying that it had not intervened in any of the primary voting and never would, calling on Roh to provide evidence of his claims. This was followed up by the Donga Ilbo, which followed the same course of action, stating it was an astounding move by a political candidate. It also threatened legal action if Roh did not produce material evidence to back up his claim.
The Chosun Ilbo called on Roh to officially apologize in person.
Yoo refused to answer questions as to why Roh picked on the Chosun Ilbo and Donga Ilbo, despite other newspapers and media outlets reporting the same stories.
Kim Yoon-soo, advisor to Rhee In je, said he had hard evidence that Roh stated he would close the Donga Ilbo and the latter's allegation this was not true was demagoguery. He called on Roh to identify by who and how he was being slandered.
Grand National Party Spokesman Nam Kyung-pil said the journalists who attended a dinner with Roh on August 1, last year, confirmed he had talked about nationalizing newspapers and closing the Donga Ilbo. Nam called for Roh to immediately apologize for deceiving the people and step down from the presidential race. He said a person who habitually changed his statements and lied should not be elected a national leader.
United Liberal Democrats Spokesman Chung Jin-seok said it was unreasonable and unimaginable to tell the media not to cover, or comment on the nature of primary elections, or intervene in them.
(Choi Joon-seok, jschoi@chosun.com)
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