Media Probes Generate More Heat, No Light Yet

The partisan dispute over the tax audit of national media companies appears to be growing into a game of ping-pong, with both camps presenting demands and counterdemands by the day.

The ruling Millennium Democratic Party submitted to the National Assembly secretariat a proposal to conduct a parliamentary probe into the destruction of the results of a 1994 tax audit into media companies by the former Kim Young-sam administration.

The ruling party's move follows the opposition Grand National Party's proposal to hold a parliamentary probe into three "press control" documents on Friday.

The ruling party listed five reasons why a parliamentary probe is needed. It charged that the probe should reveal on whose orders and by what process the then-ruling camp, which is now the opposition, destroyed the documents.

The ruling party floor leader, Rep. Lee Sang-soo, said that the parliamentary probe into the 1994 tax audit of national media companies is necessary because there are no documents detailing the results of the investigation.

Former President Kim Young-sam courted controversy when he said during a recent trip to Japan that he decided not to disclose the results of the 1994 tax audit "for the sake of the press' existence." Mr. Kim and the opposition Grand National Party have denied wrongdoing.

The National Tax Service said that the "documents were destroyed according to due process as the five years had passed."

Partisan dueling is expected to break out also in the National Assembly's meeting of the standing committee of finance and economy scheduled on Monday.

by Choi Hoon