{"id":2199508,"date":"2022-11-18T06:39:15","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T06:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/?p=2199508"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:10:57","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:10:57","slug":"yoons-media-ban-latest-example-of-south-korean-elites-disdain-for-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/11\/yoons-media-ban-latest-example-of-south-korean-elites-disdain-for-free-press\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoon\u2019s media ban latest example of South Korean elite\u2019s disdain for free press"},"content":{"rendered":"
President Yoon Suk-yeol has declared war on the free press in South Korea with his arbitrary, vindictive attacks against one of the country\u2019s largest broadcasters, ostensibly for the sin of airing unflattering footage of him.<\/span><\/p>\n No democratically elected president had ever banned major media from traveling with them before Yoon <\/span>kicked MBC off<\/span><\/a> South Korea\u2019s air force one as revenge for airing unedited footage of the president appearing to call U.S. lawmakers \u201c<\/span>bastards<\/span><\/a>\u201d in September shortly after speaking with President Joe Biden.<\/span><\/p>\n South Korea\u2019s second-largest media service was thus unable to travel with other press aboard the presidential plane to the ASEAN and G-20 Summits, the latest and most significant example of Yoon\u2019s tendency to exact personal retribution on critical news outlets, journalists and <\/span>even children<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the aftermath of this decision has been Yoon\u2019s utter lack of discomfort or remorse. Yoon has not sought to distance himself by attributing the decision to his press secretaries, or by farming out invectives against MBC to party officials, as some of his more cautious predecessors may have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instead, he has owned the decision fully, appearing in front of reporters and telling them that banning MBC was necessary in order to protect \u201c<\/span>important national interests<\/span><\/a>\u201d relating to his foreign trip. Yoon doubled down on Friday by declaring that the ban was necessary to \u201c<\/span>defend the constitution<\/span><\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps even more than his actions, Yoon\u2019s words demonstrate both a fundamental lack of understanding as to the role of the free press in a democratic society, as well as a clear and present danger that similar retribution will be exacted in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n A DISTURBING PATTERN<\/b><\/p>\n South Korean presidents\u2019 struggles with the free press are not a recent phenomenon. Yoon\u2019s actions against MBC closely mirror those of President Moon Jae-in, who <\/span>in Oct. 2018<\/span><\/a> banned a <\/span>Chosun Ilbo<\/span><\/i> journalist \u2014 who happened to be a North Korean defector \u2014 from covering an inter-Korean meeting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The following March, Moon\u2019s Democratic Party <\/span>singled out<\/span><\/a> an ethnic Korean <\/span>Bloomberg<\/span><\/i> journalist as a \u201ctraitor\u201d who had \u201cinsulted the head of state\u201d by writing a critical article,<\/span> subsequently inciting a vicious personal harassment campaign from fanatical Moon supporters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a depressingly familiar pattern, Yoon\u2019s allies have pointed to Moon\u2019s attacks on constitutional liberties <\/span>as justification<\/span><\/a> for the MBC fiasco. The liberal opposition, with equal alacrity forgetting that they were pushing draconian \u201c<\/span>press reform<\/span><\/a>\u201d bills as recently as this year, have <\/span>dressed themselves up<\/span><\/a> as defenders of the free press in mounting criticism against Yoon.<\/span><\/p>\n This, in turn, is <\/span>exactly what the conservatives were doing<\/span><\/a> to attack Moon last year, when the liberals were the ones in power and riding roughshod over press freedoms.<\/span><\/p>\n