Grand National Party Spokesman Nam Kyung-pil harshly criticized Millennium Democratic Party presidential candidate Roh Mu-hyun's support group Rosamo, Tuesday, saying its members had assumed themselves to be the main players in historical developments. Nam called their parroting of Roh's views on the media as criminals, their behavior and slanted views as self-righteous in the worse possible manner.
He said their description of newspapers they don¡¯t like as criminal organizations, the barring of reporters of a certain newspaper from their press conference and the attempt to reduce that daily's circulation by 500,000 were serious threats to the freedom of the press.
In related news the Korea News Editors Association, representing editors of both print and broadcasting media called Rosamo's action of making a specific newspaper an enemy, labeled its readers as enemies and as such was an affront to democracy. It said Roh should clearly state his views and position on this, and not simply say it was up to Rosamo members to say what they wished.
The People's Forum for a Free Press also issued a statement saying it would fight for the freedom of the press against the anti democratic terrorist-politics advocated by Rosamo which targeted perceived hostile media. It said the action by the group was unconstitutional and anti democratic behavior.
(Kwon Hyok-jong, hjkwon@chosun.com)
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