Reducing Government Press Centers Becomes International Issue

The Korean Association of Newspapers convened an emergency council meeting on Wednesday and decided to fight the government’s measures to reduce its briefing rooms and consolidate offices for news transmission. In an attempt to impede the government’s measures, the association decided to send its opinions highlighting the abuse and injustice of the government’s gag order to the press media to the National Assembly and it also reviewed its plan to send delegates and report on the domestic situations regarding news media to the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which are scheduled to be held early June in South Africa.

GNP Chairman Kang Jae-seop made a sarcastic remark at a meeting with high-ranking senior level executives on president Roh’s order to close down offices for news transmission, saying, “The policy deliberation room of parties has a news transmission office, and the meeting room for inter-Korean ministerial levels has one, but now the president is trying to remove existing ones? Is he the only one making decisions?”

GNP spokesperson Na Gyeong-won criticized the government’s measures in a briefing session, saying, “The government has tried to stifle freedom of speech, but now it wants to go further and obstruct transmitting news, in which time plays a crucial role. We are sick and tired of President Roh’s ‘threat politics.’”

The floor leaders of Korea’s six main parties, including the Uri Party and the Grand National Party, held a meeting at the National Assembly and said, “We recognized the seriousness of the issue facing the news media today, so we reached a conclusion that it should be addressed as a major issue in the next special session of the National Assembly.”

Meanwhile, the Financial Supervisory Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service today began measures to prevent news reporters from entering their offices. In response to such measures, reporters expressed their regret, saying, “We cannot accept such unreasonable methods to restrict the people’s right to know.”