Jung Denies Receiving Damaging Report From JoongAng Ilbo

Lawmaker Jung Hyung-keun of the opposition Grand National Party(GNP) said on October 27 that he did not receive a document that alleges the current government had set in motion a plan to muzzle the press by any means at its disposal, which has been creating shock ripples across the nation, from JoongAng Ilbo newspaper.
Prior to this, a spokesman for the ruling National Congress for New Politics(NCNP), Lee Young-Il, announced that JoongAng Ilbo's reporter Moon Il-hyun wrote the report on the government's plot to gag the press that was apparently leaked to the lawmaker on October 6.
Lee stated that one of the newspaper's staff seems to have handed over the report to Mr.Jung.
However, Jung made it clear that he has never met with or contacted any reporter or staffmember of JoongAng Ilbo in order to receive the report, saying that someone acquainted with a top-ranking official of the ruling party delivered the report to him.
JoongAng Ilbo said that it did not receive or commision the report from the reporter, who has lived in Beijing, China since August 1998 in pusuit of a doctoral degree in politics, and that he did not report to the newspaper that he had written the report.
The newspaper reiterated that no staffmember had or knew of the report or delivered it to Assemblyman Jung.
Seo Jang-soo:jsbee@joongang.co.kr