Roh calls for ‘tension’ with press

President Roh Moo-hyun has re-entered the lists to fling down a gauntlet at the press.
Speaking before about 60 upper-level government officials in a workshop on Saturday at the Gwacheon government complex, Mr. Roh urged the officials to stand up to the newspapers, which he has described as unfairly critical of his administration.
“Not taking action against reporting that damages the credibility of the government is negligence of duty,” Mr. Roh said. In a television appearance a few days earlier, he bitterly challenged the nation’s major newspapers to treat him like a president.
Emphasizing the need to maintain “tension” with the press, Mr. Roh urged the nation’s civil servants not to take part in a “cartel of the strong.” “Our society will not collapse if we are somewhat softer on the weak, such as the street peddlers,” he said. “But we cannot maintain a healthy society if we are infirm on the strong.”
The president added that when powerful forces compromise, a cartel of corruption, foul play and undue privilege is formed, and the weak are stepped on. “Only a civil courage that does not tolerate the violence of the strong can make a healthy democratic society,” Mr. Roh said.
The president asked that criticism be handled within the administration. “You can chew me out when you meet a journalist. But if there is truly a mistake or error on my part, you come ahead to tell it to me first, so that I can rectify it. Let’s try to correct things, as false charges are sometimes leveled by the press.”
Mr. Roh did not specify whom he meant by “the strong.” But he has been a vocal critic of close ties between the press and government ministries. “Press reform” is one of the reform blueprints charted by the new administration. Lee Chang-dong, the minister of culture and tourism, has spearheaded the new policy, which broadens access to official briefing rooms, but bars reporters from visiting officials in their offices.
In his television appearance last week, Mr. Roh said that opening the Blue House press corps to other media ― notably Internet reporters ― will ensure that sensitive information would not become the monopoly of a few favored outlets. “Have they ever treated me like a president so far?” he said.
Mr. Roh criticized the Chosun Ilbo by name for distributing free copies of an extra edition headlining the breakup of the alliance between Mr. Roh and Chung Mong-joon, just hours before voting began in the Dec. 19 presidential election.

by Kang Min-seok