'Press Control Documents' Fan Charges During Media Audit

A vernacular weekly magazine published in Seoul reported finding three of what it called "press control documents," raising National Assembly charges Wednesday against the government for the ongoing tax audit into media companies.

The Sisa Journal said in its edition Tuesday that the ruling camp categorized 10 major national newspapers into three groups?anti-government, middle-of-the-road and pro-government.

The article, titled "Break the Cartel of Critique Formed by JoongAng, Chosun and Dong-a," concludes that "press reform" should be carried out through a public campaign to curb major dailies' criticism of the administration. The three newspapers mentioned are the JoongAng, Chosun and Dong-a Ilbos.

Of the three documents, the first was drawn up early in the Kim Dae-jung administration, which began two and a half years ago, the second last August and the third last November. The third document describes press criticism as having reached a "dangerous level" and suggests steps to lessen the harsh tone rather than suing for libel.

The weekly said that President Kim Dae-jung was reportedly briefed on the documents drawn up by ruling camp think tanks.

Partisan fighting on the issue raged on the parliament floor on Wednesday when an interpellation session on the economy was held for the second consecutive day. President Lee Hoi-chang of the opposition Grand National Party said, "The documents show that the administration called for 'press reform' for the sake of muzzling the critical press. We will actively deal with the oppression of the press that is being carried out through the tax audit."

The party's ad-hoc committee formed to combat press oppression called the documents a "subversive act" and asked whether President Kim had been briefed on them.

A presidential spokesman, Park Joon-young, said that the president "was not briefed."

The ruling party spokesman, Kim Young-hwan, said, "our party had nothing to do with the documents." Prime Minister Lee Han-dong added that "the government has no knowledge of the documents."

by Noh Jae-hyun