Actor Myong-Kae-nam, head of the so-called Rosamo, an organization supporting Millennium Democratic Party presidential candidate Roh Mu-hyun, told reporters Monday that the Chosun Ilbo was an organized crime group. In a news conference, from which the newspapers journalists were barred, Myong said Rosamo would join hands with civic groups and other media to monitor criminal media organizations, and would run a boycott of the Chosun Ilbo to reduce its circulation by 500,000.
Myung said the organized media criminal groups were those which used their access to irresponsibly promoter their self interest. He added that there were more than the Chosun Ilbo, but for practical purposes Rosamo would focus on the country's largest circulation newspaper.
Myun also criticized SBS for removing presenter and Rosamo member Moon Seong-keun from an investigative journalism post for focusing on politics and not social affairs, saying it too would become a target if it continued to act in a similar fashion.
He said Rosamo would take the historical role of challenger to reform old style political thought through targeting the media, the central axis of this Cold War mentality. Myung continued the group was strong enough and up to the task.
Myung also said Rosamo was suing Grand National Party lawmaker Park Won-hong for calling it a group of political beggars and a quasi-religious sect, and Kim Yoon-soo, the press aide to Rhee In-je who said group members stayed in expensive hotels during the MDP primaries.
(Shin Jong-rok, jrshin@chosun.com)
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