[Editorial] President Roh Misunderstanding the Press

We wonder why President Roh Moo-hyun said that the press is an uncontrolled and unverified power. If he gives thought to political control and verification such as elections, there are some flaws in the premise. In democracy and market economy the job of control and verification of the press falls onto readers. Those newspapers that readers do not accept are subject to "natural selection." There is no room for political power in the selection process and there should be no room for this.

It is democracy ideology and principles as well as laws and institutions that give the press the function of supervising abuse of power. In this context, freedom of the press is directly related to a government’s legitimacy in terms of liberal democracy. Therefore, Mr. Roh was right when he said, "Power and the press should go on their own way." The fact that the two should maintain a strained relationship is also right.

However, misunderstandings are not part of a constructively strained relationship at all. If the two sides look upon each other as an enemy without efforts to understand each other, it would bring about national confusion. Strain itself is good but if hostility intervenes, it could lead to fallacy.

We did not agree with him when he used expressions like "bad press environment" and "media outlets` oppression and envy." Media companies themselves did their best in reports and editorials, but the president understood in a different way. It is a pity that he is interpreting the press’ reasonable check and criticism emotionally. The president made mistakes when he generalized reporters as those who go drinking with presidential aides and have empty talks.

The government should reflect on whether it created a bad press environment for itself. In modern Korean history, it was the government not the press that engaged in oppression. As a result, the press cannot but become tenser than the government. If the government wants a constructive tense relationship with the press, it should keep its restraints to a minimum.