The International Press Institute (IPI), at a press conference held in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday, 6 September 2001, announced that it has placed South Korea on the “IPI Watch List”. The decision has been unanimously approved by the IPI Executive Board.
The inclusion of South Korea comes at a time when three newspaper owners/publishers are currently being held without bail pending trial. Bang Sang-hoon, President of South Korea’s largest daily, Chosun Ilbo, Kim Byung-kwan of the Dong-a Ilbo, and Cho Hee-jun of the Kukmin Ilbo, were arrested on 17 August on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement.
On 4 September, prosecutors indicted six media corporations and 13 media executives, including the three jailed newspaper owners, on charges of tax evasion or embezzlement. The arrests and indictments come only weeks after tax authorities imposed a record US$ 390 million in fines against 23 Seoul-based media outlets following a large-scale tax probe. IPI protested on several occasions against this unprecedented tax probe, which it believes was politically-motivated and part of a wider campaign to muzzle the voice of the independent media in South Korea.
“The tax investigation and arrest of the newspaper owners is only the beginning of a concerted attack on the media,” Johann P. Fritz, Director of IPI, said at the press conference. “We came here to let people know that the international community is following the unfavourable media situation that is evolving in Korea.”
Present at today’s press conference were members of a joint IPI/WAN delegation, currently in Seoul on a press freedom mission: Johann P. Fritz; Bruce Brugmann, Editor/Publisher of the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Board Member of the IPI American Committee; Nils Oy, Secretary-General of the Association of Editors in Norway and Member of the Norwegian IPI Committee; and Roger Parkinson, Chairman of The Globe and Mail, Canada, and President of the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN), the global organisation for the newspaper industry.
From 5-8 September, the IPI/WAN delegation has organised meetings with members of the government, the opposition Grand National Party, the special investigative committee convened by the National Assembly, and civic groups. On 5 September, the delegation met with the three jailed newspaper owners at the Euiwang Detention Centre. “We asked for an interview with President Kim Dae-jung, but unfortunately we were refused,” Fritz said. “Negotiation is necessary for discussion and only this can prevent confrontation.”
South Korea is the first member of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to be placed on the “IPI Watch List”. The other countries currently on the list are Russia, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela.
The “IPI Watch List” was created to identify those countries that are free or partly free but appear to be moving towards suppressing or restricting press freedom. In practice, countries are placed on the list and their status evaluated twice a year by the IPI Executive Board. After the evaluation, countries are either removed from the list or face renewed efforts by IPI to bring about change.
