hankyoreh

Today (Saturday) journalists fired by the DongA Ilbo in 1975 and regular citizens are holding a "Candelight Cultural Festival for a Free Media" in front of that newspaper's offices in Seoul's Gwanghwamun neighborhood, on the occasion of the paper's founding. The 130 who were fired fought against the "Yusin" dictatorship of Park Chung Hee in 1974 and on March 17 the next year they were kicked out of their jobs. The paper's owner had engaged in a massacre of journalists, and it began when he surrendered to the regime's "advertising oppression." Along with the firings at the Chosun Ilbo, it was a case of government suppression of the media that will never be forgotten.

The journalists who were fired from the DongA and the Chosun continued their fight for press freedoms, despite many difficulties. The Hankyoreh can be seen as a product of that struggle. No one would be able to deny that the freedom enjoyed by the DongA, the Chosun, and other media today was made possible through their campaign.

It has been 31 years, and yet instead of reflecting on what it did wrong and apologizing, the DongA actually distorts the truth of what happened and pretends like their struggle is party of the paper's proud history. It is inexcusable that a paper pretends as if it was always a defender of press freedom when it was really in bed with the dictatorship. It is an insult to those who have been engaged in a sit-in since March 17 calling for the DongA to apologize. It is also blasphemy against the history of the struggle for democracy, against all those who fought for a free media and for democratic rights.

On this the anniversary of the DongA's founding, we again call on it to recognize what it did wrong and apologize. Doing so would be the first step in washing the past wrongs away and being born anew. In addition, we call for a government-level effort to ascertain the truth about what really happened. Correcting what went wrong in history has to be done for a better future.

The Hankyoreh, 1 April 2006.


[Translations by Seoul Selection]