Korea's press freedom slips to new low

Media freedom in South Korea has slipped to its lowest ranking ever, with the government “heavily influencing” public broadcasters and online censorship increasing dramatically.

Freedom House’s annual Freedom of the Press survey downgraded Korea’s media freedom rating from “free” to “partly free” for the first time as it condemned Lee Myung-Bak’s administration.

Karin Karlekar, Managing Editor of the Freedom of the Press Index for Freedom House, said: “The Lee administration had influenced the politics within the three public broadcasting companies heavily.” She cites the example of ex-MBC President Ohm Ki-young, who eventually resigned after intense government pressure. He was asked to leave by two of Lee’s closest aides, while MBC shareholders belonging to a government-controlled group refused to back Ohm’s appointments. His resignation was seen as a protest against government interference.

This is not an isolated case, according to the Freedom House report, which claims Lee-Myung-bak has appointed his “allies” at a number of large media companies, despite journalists’ protests.

Such direct interference is a threat to media neutrality, and Jang Jang-soo, English editor of the Hankyoreh newspaper, believes that is already a serious problem. He said: “major media outlets… appear to be willing to cooperate with the Lee Myung-bak administration to distribute inaccurate information.”

He claims that the government’s “possible concealment and fabrications”, supported by a subservient media, makes truthful reporting very hard.

This extends as far as last year’s big news event, the sinking the Cheonan warship. While most major newspapers unquestioningly accepted the official report, the Hankyoreh has raised some serious concerns, in light of conflicting claims from both eyewitnesses and the Russian investigation. Jang-soo wants an independent investigation, saying: “We don’t have enough information to determine the truth.”

He stressed that The Hankyoreh, as with most small, independent publications, is free to report as it chooses. The conflicts arise for the big corporations, who must compete in a market over which the government holds great power.

A perfect example of this arose late last year, when the government personally selected news organizations to run lucrative new TV channels. Through the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) it awarded contracts to five corporations, who together will dominate the TV news agenda.

The result was that, as Kwon Eun-kyoung, English editor of thedailynk.com, told us: “The KCC inclined to major newspaper companies, which are conservative and friendly to the Lee administration.”

Censorship

The Freedom House report states that: "North Korea–related content has been heavily and explicitly filtered under the provisions of the National Security Law, which classifies content that ‘praises, promotes, and glorifies North Korea’ as ‘illegal information.’” The report claims there are now 65 sites blocked under these terms.

Within days of their appearance the government had blocked the facebook and twitter accounts of Uriminzokkiri, a website run by the North Korean government targeting South Koreans. The government also, according to Eun-kyoung, monitors any pro-North Korea websites. She claims that such actions will continue as long as North Korean espionage activities, such as, potentially, the recent crippling of Nonghyup bank, continue. 

North Korea continues to influence many groups in South Korea, such as the National Teachers’ Union and the Democratic Labor party, as well as a multitude of leftist organizations. In late May it emerged that 70 soldiers were members of a pro-North Korea website, the owner of which is now in jail. In this fractious environment, Eun-kyoung believes censorship to be to be “inevitable”.

Less inevitable is the recent case of Samsung pressuring Naver into removing a blog post critical of their Galaxy 2 smartphone, when the company used vague defamation laws to their advantage. One official said that they receive many similar requests every month, suggesting that online opinion is being shaped in the corporations favor.

Unsurprisingly, the report placed media freedom in North Korea among the world’s worst, with independent media “either non-existent or barely able to operate”.

Published in InDaegu http://www.in-daegu.com/PDFs/June2011.pdf

Daegu Casino

Daegu’s first casino opened without much fanfare back in March, and anyone who’s visited it will attest to the spectral silence that haunts it on most nights. Often the dealers outnumber the players, and the huge, glittering space is reminiscent of a Vegas apocalypse movie. The owners, however, are not perturbed.

“Casino’s are rarely profitable in the first 6-12 months,” said Ocean, Director of Marketing at Daegu Casino. “Our plan is to attract high-rollers from China and Japan using package deals, selling them cheap rooms, free flights to Daegu, and offers at various attractions.” A luxury golf course will open soon, and places like Woobang Land and Spa Valley provide added lure.

These plans remain embryonic at the moment, and the casino must make do with locals, particularly westerners, who, Ocean says: “gamble for fun, not for serious money. That is why we do not target those markets.” Whatever, they have made the place attractive to those of us who only know Blackjack and Texas Hold’em. Minimum bets are 10,000W (while that may seem high, the odds are not weighted heavily in the dealers favor in these games), and as long as you are playing free drinks and food will flow all night long. They also run poker tournaments two or three times a week with varying buy-ins.

The other major clients are Koreans who trick their way in using ‘passport residence’ in another country. Many will travel to places, particularly South America, where they can pick up a green card in about 30 days. They can then use this to claim residency, for work purposes, in that country, and with it be considered foreign enough for the casinos. Recently two men, with passport residence but living in Korea, cheated the Seoul casinos for 8 billion won, sparking calls to close this loophole.

A Foreign Ministry official explained the difficulty of this to the Chosun Ilbo: "It takes about two months to verify suspicious residence permits, but we’re required under present laws to issue a residency passport within eight days, so we have to hand out the passports without being able to verify the applicants."

So, Daegu Casino will be relying on westerners and the odd cheeky native for the time being, and it faces an uphill battle to gain recognition outside this fair city.

It is illegal even to advertise casinos in China, though it can be mentioned as a feature of the hotel. Most worryingly, Daegu casino is in direct competition with Seoul, Macau and a host of other well-known cities for the elusive high-rollers. However, Ocean says, it does have one ace up its sleeve: “Daegu is already a very popular hub for medical tourism, and we’re working with people to see if we can tie the two into each other. This has the added bonus of making it much easier for the Chinese to secure visas.” 

Published in InDaegu http://www.in-daegu.com/PDFs/June2011.pdf