Putinization Update
More bad news for press freedom in South Korea. The woman slated to become the new presidential secretary for public information apparently thinks one of the ways the government should advance its agenda is to favor sychophantic newspapers and try to destroy the critical ones:
“So long as the Chosun Ilbo remains the most influential newspaper, no reforms of the government can succeed,” she asserted. She also proposed a drive to double the readership of the Hankyoreh, attributing the daily’s lack of space and shoddy editing to the paper’s poor financial start. In addition to making these assertions in words, she played an active part in deeds by joining a group pushing particular media companies.
Ever since the left took control of the South Korean government in 1997, some of its actions have raised concerns that it’s trying to muzzle media which have asked hard questions about its policy of appeasing the North Korean regime. If you believe what the admittedly biased Chosun Ilbo says, this new minister thinks that the South Korean media should all be just like the Hankyoreh Sinmun, which means they should me a lot more like the Rodong Sinmun (judge for yourself). For those of you who missed my recent description of the Hani–
Reading the Hankyoreh . . . requires as much discipline and dedication as reviewing mortgage paperwork during a taping of “Girls Gone Wild.” The Hani is a stultifying, self-righteously wrong party diktat, the official mouthpiece of the Korean left, a publication that takes itself as seriously as, well, North Korea. I read the Hani the way a juror looks at autopsy photographs.
Not exactly the recipe for vigorous, vibrant debate in a free society. Had John Aschcroft been half this bad, some of the hyperbolic criticism of him might have made a dent. Doesn’t anyone else–particularly anyone on the left–see a danger here? I mean, I called the whole Armstrong Williams thing sleazy. Governments shouldn’t be in the business of coddling or muzzling media to control the message, unless they’re willing to relinquish the “democracy” label, of course.