{"id":2199116,"date":"2022-10-07T08:42:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T08:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/?p=2199116"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:11:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:11:29","slug":"yoons-attempts-to-censor-media-call-into-question-his-fitness-to-govern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/10\/yoons-attempts-to-censor-media-call-into-question-his-fitness-to-govern\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoon\u2019s attempts to censor media call into question his fitness to govern"},"content":{"rendered":"
Like many other values at the heart of democratic life, Koreans have won their freedom of speech far too recently to take it for granted. As recently as the 1980s, newsrooms were forced to conform to \u201c<\/span>press guidelines<\/span><\/a>\u201d issued by the authoritarian government and ordinary people were routinely put on trial for op-eds or posters that ran afoul of the dictator\u2019s whims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If not for the bravery and sacrifice that ultimately led to democratization, the draconian controls on speech we see in places like Tehran or Moscow could very easily still exist in Seoul today.<\/span><\/p>\n It is doubly tragic, therefore, that the current occupant of the Korean presidency appears to view the speech restrictions of the authoritarian era not with relief and regret \u2014 but with nostalgia and envy. After major broadcaster MBC aired a hot-mic clip of Yoon Suk-yeol likely calling U.S. lawmakers \u201cbastards,\u201d he immediately announced an \u201c<\/span>inquiry<\/span><\/a>\u201d into press outlets that reported his gaffe and demanded an apology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Then Yoon\u2019s conservative People Power Party (PPP) went further and filed <\/span>criminal complaints<\/span><\/a> against the broadcaster and four individual journalists.<\/span><\/p>\n A more self-aware, politically skilled administration would have played the story for laughs and allowed the news cycle to pass. But Yoon and his advisors chose a different path. Their heavy-handed response to a relatively minor incident has allowed it to grow into an ongoing international embarrassment that seriously calls into question Yoon\u2019s fitness to govern.<\/span><\/p>\n