hankyoreh

By Jung Hye-shin, psychiatrist

The situation at the weekly news magazine Sisa Journal has been a year-long series of admiration and frustration. You feel admiration for the journalists there who are standing up against wrongs committed, and you feel frustration at the overwhelming indifference of fellow members of the media.

Sisa Journal has maintained its independence for 18 years. The process by which the situation came to this is incredibly simple. A year ago its president, Keum Jang-tea, without the knowledge of the chief editor, went to the printing company and removed an article about Samsung. The editor resigned in protest and his resignation was accepted that very day. Heavy disciplinary action was taken against journalists there who protested, as well. Geum continues to publish the magazine without any of the journalists participating in the protest. People are calling it the "jjaktong Sisa Journal," jjaktong being what Koreans call imitations of name brands. One devoted reader who bought the magazine not knowing its journalists were on strike said it felt "like being sexually harassed." Not too long ago a court said that Keum's actions were not legitimate, but the "imitation" version of the magazine continues to be published every week.

What is even more painful than the everyday pain of having to sit on the street or under a tent or in the corner of someone else's office fighting in defense of editorial authority at the "true Sisa Journal" is the pain that comes with the fact fellow members of the media are more interested in protecting themselves, and so the plight of Sisa's journalists has not been amply conveyed to the public. One reporter there who wanted to tell the world about what was going on got himself on a quiz program on television and won the day's quiz so he could announce himself to be a striking reporter from the magazine.

In a survey of 300 journalists last February, nine out of ten said they supported the strike at Sisa, and eight out of ten said it represented a problem for the media as a whole. Still, most media outlets are strangely silent about the issue. Their fellow journalists are being beaten to a pulp by thugs and they could be next, but they are turning their heads when they should be lending a hand. Their heads and bodies are moving in opposite directions. This is evidence of the fact that the power of capital has been fully engraved in the minds and bodies of the country's journalists. According to one study, journalists are feeling psychologically weaker since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. They feel aware of the influence of money in the course of covering and editing the news, and they engage in self-censorship out of consideration for advertisers.

You feel admiration for Sisa's 23 journalists still out on the street, who have scored several exclusive stories using their own money, even to travel as far as overseas to report, despite not having any printed edition to work with. I have no intention to sing their praises and make them heroes, but as a journalist and human being, I do think their actions are healthy and represent the best of the spirit of journalism.

Their dignified actions should be recorded. Not because they are the best journalists, but because they are important symbols by which we can judge the future climate for Korean journalism when it comes to the problem of the power of money and the profession. If there are any journalists who have remained silent without realizing what they are doing, I would recommend they quietly call out each of the 23 names of the Sisa reporters on strike.

Go Jae-yeol, Go Je-gyu, Kim Eun-nam, Nam Mun-hui, No Sun-dong, Mun Jeong-u, Baek Seung-gi, So Jong-seop, Sin Ho-cheol, An Eun-ju, An Cheol-heung, An Hui-tae, Yang Han-mo, O Yun-hyeon, Yu Ok-gyeong, Yun Mu-yeong, Yi Suk-I, Yi Jeong-hyeon, Yi Cheol-hyeon, Jang Yeong-hui, Jeong Hui-sang, Ju Jin-u, Cha Hyeong-seok.

"If the Sisa Journal can't say what has to be said, no one can." This is what has kept them going for the past year, and this is most true of these 23 men and women. I send them my sympathy, encouragement, and respect.