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A cartoon depicting the situation at Yonhap News Agency

The mood at South Korea’s mainstay news agency is becoming increasingly demoralized over unfair, pro-administration reporting and punitive reassignments.

After Park No-hwang took over as CEO of Yonhap News in Mar. 2015, he immediately stirred up controversy with his visit to Seoul National Cemetery and flag-hoisting ceremony. A string of punitive reassignments ensued, with many reporters being dispatched outside the Seoul area for criticizing the agency or playing a leading role in a 103-day strike three years earlier to oppose “parachute appointments” - the practice of administrations placing friendly associates at the head of major agencies. A labor union president who took part in an emergency statement opposing state issuance of history textbooks suffered docked wages.

An integrated news editor-in-chief system operating on a principle of separation between management and editing had originally been introduced after a labor union strike as a means of ensuring fair reporting. With a January collective agreement, the system was ushered out completely, and editing authority went to the “executive director for content convergence,” a management position.

“The company wasn’t just opposed to the integrated news editor-in-chief system. It also thought approval of managing editor appointments was a violation of its human resources authority,” said union secretary-general Lee Jeong-jin. “This was a compromise to ensure some mechanism to reflect some minimal opinion in practical terms through voting.”

The compromise ended up being a major retreat: a non-binding framework of “discussions” on appointments.

“The atmosphere here just keeps getting worse by the day,” said one reporter.

“They shackle us with orders about ‘do this, don’t do that,’ and there are now so many calls from higher up for certain articles and the workload has increased in every department,” the reporter added.

“They’re demanding formulaic feature pieces instead of productive, creative content, and there’s a lot of micromanaging of trivial details.”

Another reporter said the increased workload was less of a problem than the sense of embarrassment as journalists.

“It gives me a feeling of psychological shame and defeat to have to write articles according to the higher-ups’ demands and dictates rather than the feeling on the ground,” the reporter said.

Indeed, some journalists have complained of feeling “impotent” over unbalanced reporting that downplays or ignores statements by progressive groups while focusing attention solely on conservative ones.

Recently, the Yonhap organization has been destabilized by periodic assertions of human resources authority - ostensibly to “boost competitiveness.” Staffers now complain of feeling terrorized, afraid to utter a word of resistance for fear that the signal will be sent to human resources and unfavorable measures will be taken against them. The company has even taking to issuing orders to refrain from using Facebook and other social networking services. It‘s for that reason that Yonhap News reporters “like” pieces by other outlets without sharing their own. With one wrong click potentially making them look “disgruntled,” some steer clear of all company bulletin boards; reporters have even started dodging department dinners, sources said.

In terms of hiring, the ranks of journalists are filling with career reporters instead of new hires through open recruitment. While current staffers operate on a salary step system, the career reporters are subject to the annual pay system the company desires.

“Their aim seems to be making less room for open recruitment hires who speak collectively, and stripping the unions of their strength,” said one reporter.

Many have complained about unfair reporting in the lead-up to the parliamentary elections on Apr. 13. Yonhap’s once-competitive North Korea reporting has been replaced by pieces with less expertise and more of a ruling party bias. With the North Korea bureau reduced to a team, North Korean refugee reporters have either quit or been reassigned to other departments, which may have hurt the tone of reporting.

“If even the North Korea fear-mongering of the past was still rooted in fact, today it’s about gross exaggeration without any facts,” said Lee Yong-ma, a spokesperson for the General Election Reporting Watchdog Alliance.

Yonhap News currently receives over 30 billion won (US$25.2 million) in government support for “subscription fees.” Even its governance structure is controlled by politicians. Its majority shareholder, the Korea News Agency Commission, consists of seven members, with two nominated by the Blue House, one by the National Assembly Speaker, one each by the ruling Saenuri Party and opposition, and one each by the Korean Association of Newspapers and Korean Broadcasters Association. It’s a framework that leaves it chiefly in administration and ruling party hands.

“The unfair, pro-administration reporting we’re seeing from Yonhap News is a result of its subordinate position, where the administration appoints its president and budget support comes from the government,” said Nam Jae-il, a professor of journalism and mass communication at Kyungpook National University.

According to Nam, government support from taxpayer money should be used instead for articles that serve the interests of all citizens and the cause of social justice.

“The only way to find an independent role for a public news agencies is by keeping politicians as far as possible from the governance structure that selects the CEO,” he said.

By Moon Hyun-sook, senior staff writer

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]