<18> Gov`t-run Media Imitating the Press

Their Own “Self-appraisal Exorcism Performance” with Tens of Billions in Tax Money

《“Among many facts presented by the government, few have been covered by any press company at least that I know of, and they have neither appeared in the reports on press reports analysis. On the Government Information Briefing website there are dozens of valuable articles, and I cannot but ask why they never appear in press articles,” said President Roh Moo-hyun at the celebration party of the 44th Broadcast Day, September 3, held at the 63 Building in Yeouido, Seoul. Ironically, this comment of President Roh shows why “the Government Information Briefing,” “the Cheong Wa Dae Briefing,” and “The National Audio Visual Information Service (KTV)” are considered as “government-run media imitating the form of journalism.” The intention is that “the government needs to establish a medium of its own and directly send arguments and persuade people because newspapers do not write as the government wants.” Born for such needs and run by tax money, these media are being utilized for attacking the press with the justification of raising the awareness of government policies.》

“Media as a Political Escort” for the Administration-

The Cheong Wa Dae Briefing and the Government Information Briefing are grounded on the “transition committee briefing” which was produced in the form of a “bulletin” for the presidential transition committee during President Roh’s election. The purpose was to better apprise the people of the internal news of the government and to approach them in a friendlier manner.

But shortly after the inauguration of President Roh, their role turned into attacking the press which took a critical attitude toward the government. It was through the Cheong Wa Dae briefing that Presidential Secretary for Communication Planning Yang Jeong-cheol urged, “Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo should stop the exorcism performance of condemnation,” attacking the press criticism concerning the administrative capital.

Recently, the Government Information Briefing and the Cheong Wa Dae Briefing have voluntarily acted as the “guardian angel” for President Roh and his administration on the frontline regarding not only political issues but real-estate, education, and fiscal policies as well.

The Government Information Briefing dated October 11 is mostly filled with defensive articles on the inter-Korean summit held between October 2 and 4 in Pyongyang. The top news puts forth the achievement of the summit under the title: “Peace and Joint Development Projects on the Korean Peninsula Capacitated by an Idea Switch.” Also conspicuous is the series titled “2007 Inter-Korean Summit Declaration, the New Vision for Peaceful Economy on the Korean Peninsula,” beginning with “Infrastructure for Economic Cooperation Lays Ground for Railway-Highway-Sea Route Linkage.”

Below, articles are posted counter-arguing the problems in raising capital for economic cooperation which were pointed out by most media right after the summit.

The serial articles titled “True Record on the History of Educational Policies” that have been posted on the Government Information Briefing from September 13 are raising controversy for their unilateral vindication for the “3 Taboos Policy” and other current educational policies brought up again by Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak’s announcement of educational pledges.

Cheong Wa Dae Briefing Says “Don’t Shake the Administration”-

Though similar to the Government Information Briefing, the Cheong Wa Dae Briefing takes on more traits of President Roh as it is partly produced by Cheong Wa Dae.

As of October 11, posted in array below the main frame that mainly deals with the achievements of the 2007 inter-Korean summit are articles titled: “What is Lee Myung-bak’s real intention behind balanced national development?”; “Do Not Shake the Educational Policies,” and; “Do Not Shake the Real Estate Policies of the Participatory Government.” In many cases, reading the titles is enough to guess what is in the main text.

“Do Not Shake the Real Estate Policies of the Participatory Government” focused criticism on the recent argument by candidate Lee that “it is inappropriate to impose a heavy tax on a house owned by a person over a long-term for residential purpose.”

Although the reduction of tax on long-term one-house owners has been discussed not only within Grand National Party but the ruling circle as well, the Cheong Wa Dae Briefing repeated its logic that it has been sticking to since the announcement of 8•31 Real Estate Policy in 2005.

Criticizing the press is still another favorite menu.

On the left-hand side of the main frame, an article with an interesting title has been shown for the last several days: “Is It That Strange to Behave Oneself?” Written by Presidential Secretary for Domestic Communication Jeong Gu-cheol, it talks about the controversy raised after President Roh’s wife Ms. Gwon Yang-sook invited and consoled the wife of former Presidential Secretary for Policy Planning Byeon Yang-gyun whose “inappropriate relationship” with Shin Jeong-ah was recently disclosed, as follows: “…Some question whether their meeting was purely for consolation … It is only too natural for a person to see another and express consolation when the latter is in a hard situation … That is how the president and Ms. Gwon feel they should treat others. Please do not assess their feelings based on the mundane harsh standard.”

It is difficult to find Cheong Wa Dae’s regretful attitude about the humiliation it underwent for standing behind the dishonest explanation even after suspicions broke out against the highest-ranking Cheong Wa Dae official. It instead asks others not to assess President Roh and Ms. Gwon based on an “ordinary standard.” No surprise some conclude that Cheong Wa Dae should limit its briefings for internal use rather them giving them to third-parties.

KTV was launched in 1995 during the Kim Young-sam administration with the intention to better publicize the government’s policies to the people. In “A Letter to Government Employees,” he posted on the Cheong Wa Dae Briefing on December 14 last year, President Roh recommended them to watch KTV, writing, “The government develops and announces policies after strenuous research, but in many cases they are not mentioned by the media. The government is running KTV so as to overcome this problem.”

But in reality, KTV has been completely disregarded by the people. A recent average audience rating of KTV was around 0.05 percent. Only 24,000 of the 48 million South Koreans watch the channel. Even when it is assumed that all the viewers are government employees, only 2.6 percent of the 930,000 public employees watch KTV.

The problem is that the government is spending 86 billion won of budget money this year not only on already mentioned media but also on the Defense Agency for Public Information Services, Arirang TV, and other institutions or media that broadcast the one-way arguments of the government.

A veteran journalism scholar who wishes to stay anonymous said, “The Roh Moo-hyun administration is wasting tax money and unable to overcome the temptation to take part in the realm of media directly and produce popular opinion.”

[Journalism Scholars Criticize the “Prejudiced Government-run Media]

The government classifies the Government Information Briefing and the Cheong Wa Dae Briefing as a so-called “alternative media,” arguing it established them because “it was difficult to communicate governmental policies through existing media.” In May last year, the Government Information Briefing had argued that it “exists as a government-run alternative media for the communication with people in a time when the media should not be the monopolizer of social agendas.”

But many scholars of journalism are expressing strong opposition about such description by the government.

“The government can establish a separate channel for the communication of its policies,” said emeritus professor of Mass Communication at Yonsei University Seo Jeong-wu, one of the veterans in journalism study and president of the Journalists’ Federation of Korea. “The problem is whether the Government Information Briefing is properly communicating government policies and presenting good information and opinions to the people.”

“In an advanced nation of liberal democracy, communication between the government and the people ought to take place through the existing media that have long been utilized for such purpose, but the Roh Moo-hyun administration committed the mistake of failing to do so and spending extra tens of billions of tax money to create a prejudiced ‘government-run media,’” professor Seo added.

“It is doubtful whether the Government Information Briefing and the Cheong Wa Dae Briefing are communicating sufficiently with the people to a level to which they deserve the name of ‘alternative media,’” said professor Lee Jae-jin of Information and Communications at Hanyang University. “Even communication professors like me who have more interest in the public communication of national affairs than ordinary people rarely turn to the Government Information Briefing to find out what is going on in national affairs.”

“The government should immediately decide whether to keep running them or not by analyzing the efficiency of the ‘government-run media’ in a precise and statistical manner,” professor Lee added.