An ideology too deeply skewed to change

Hwang Sang-moo, senior presidential secretary for civil and social affairs, cannot be pardoned for his off-the-track description of a 1988 terrorist attack on a journalist, while dining with the press corps of the presidential office. He specifically addressed an MBC reporter in bringing up the episode which happened during his military service at the Korea Defense Intelligence Command (KDIC).

On Aug. 6, 1988, Oh Hong-keun, a senior editor at the now-defunct JoongAng Economic Daily, was stabbed on his thigh on his way to work for his critical writing about the military regime. The attack was later found to be ordered by the KDIC, which was angry about his opinion piece arguing for the need to reform our military culture. Why did the presidential secretary suddenly mention the shocking event that disgraced the country’s history in democracy? Hwang said he just wanted to remind that Oh had invited the misfortune with his critical piece on the government.

But his remarks only suggested that journalists today also can run into trouble if they write negatively about the government. When reporters angrily protested the comment, he tried to laugh it off as a joke. But who would take a sober warning from a senior presidential secretary as a joke?

Hwang also implied that North Korea was behind the Gwangju democracy movement, saying, “Ordinary citizens could not have acted so organized.” Even if the remark was made “off-the-record,” a presidential aide should have known better to decipher what can and cannot be said. The governing People Power Party’s interim leader Han Dong-hoon has been upping his attacks on a series of verbal blunders by members of the Democratic Party and even visited Gwangju to pay homage to the democracy movement heritage. Yet a presidential secretary has splashed cold water on the effort through his controversial remarks that can only come from the past military regime.

Hwang later apologized to the families of Oh and journalists and promised that he will watch his words and remarks better. Hwang was a KBS reporter for 30 years and served as a news anchor.

Hwang clearly would have calculated whether reporters would take his mention of the terrorist attack as a threat or joke. Words are the byproduct of one’s conviction. The latest fiasco could imply the perspective on the media by Hwang and in the inner circles of power.

The presidential office must not let the affair pass with Hwang’s short apology. It must use the momentum to appreciate the media role of checking the sitting power, fix the skewed perspective towards the media, and normalize communication with the public. Without such fundamental self-reflection, the slips of the tongue won’t cease.