Kong Kwi-hyo'n
Newspapers when our parents were our age could express themselves
less freely than they can now. In those days, because newspapers were controlled
by the government, they were not able to express everything they wanted to say.
They could not censure the president, nor any trivial thing related to the government.
If they did so, they were punished by the government. When, in a newspaper,
a negative report was found, the reporter and the editor of the newspaper were
violently warned, and sometimes were dismissed by the government. And, in more
serious cases, they were imprisoned and even tortured. But these days newspapers
are not controlled by the government. They can negatively say something about
the government and severely censure the president. Two years ago, when there
was an economic crisis in Korea, all newspapers blamed the president at that
time for it. But no newspaper was punished. Of course, newspapers cannot censure
a person groundlessly. Those cases are controlled by the law. Last year, a major
newspaper blamed Prof. Choi Jang-jip, a consultant to the government, for admiring
North Korea. Some time later, it was revelaed as untrue and the newspaper was
accused of defamation. Absolutely, in this case, a punishment is executed by
the law. Consequently, the newspaper compensated him for it. Illegality like
torture or dismissal is never used. So, we are controlled by the rule of law
instead of the rule of political might.