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Yoon Do-hyun, the chair of the People Power Party’s special committee on media policy, and Kim Jang-kyom, the chair of the ruling party’s special committee on preventing “fake news” and rumors, are joined by other lawmakers as they announced their decision to file a complaint at the National Police Agency against Kim Man-bae, Shin Hak-lim, and journalists who reported on their allegedly faked interview. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s prosecution service has organized a special investigation team to figure out who may have been behind the Newstapa interview between Shin Hak-lim and Kim Man-bae. Considering that the interview, which allegedly contained false information, was released shortly before the presidential election last year, prosecutors believe that some individuals were attempting to use the interview to manipulate public opinion.

Right on time, the ruling People Power Party has filed criminal complaints against journalists from Newstapa, MBC and JTBC who reported on the interview, and the city of Seoul has said it will consider ordering Newstapa to halt publication. The Yoon administration and ruling party are seeking to use the Newstapa interview as an excuse to gag press outlets that are critical of the government.

The prosecutors’ stated justification for setting up a special investigation team is bizarre. Press reports had basically suggested that Yoon had done a poor job in investigating illegal loans by the Busan Savings Bank, which provided funds for a real estate development in the Daejang neighborhood of Seongnam when Yoon was a mid-level prosecutor at the Central Investigation Department at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO) in 2011.

Cho Woo-hyeong, a loan broker and a relative of Park Yeon-ho, the then-chairman of the Busan Savings Bank, had arranged the loan for the Daejang neighborhood real estate developers. While the SPO Central Investigation Department reviewed Cho’s bank accounts and brought him in for questioning, it didn’t file charges.

At that time, Cho hired special counsel Park Young-soo as his attorney on the recommendation of Kim Man-bae. Park Young-soo, as it happened, was one of Yoon’s superiors during his career as a prosecutor. But when Cho was investigated on the same charges by the Suwon District Prosecutors Office four years later, he was indicted and eventually sentenced to two years and six months in prison. As such, it’s only natural to wonder whether the SPO Central Investigation Department pulled its punches with Cho.

But the prosecutors have made the peculiar argument that allegations of a shoddy investigation are “false,” asserting that “Cho Woo-hyeong’s testimony and other factors clearly establish that he wasn’t questioned about the Daejang development funds during the investigation by the SPO Central Investigation Department.” If Cho wasn’t questioned about the Daejang neighborhood funds despite allegations of illegal loans, wouldn’t that itself be evidence of a shoddy investigation?

Nam Wook, an attorney who was connected with the Daejang development project, told prosecutors during questioning that “Kim Man-bae asked Kim Hong-il, who was head of the SPO Central Investigation Department at the time, to go easy on Cho Woo-hyeong when he was being investigated by the department.” Kim Hong-il was the direct superior of Yoon Suk-yeol at the time and was in fact recently appointed to lead the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.

Given all those circumstances, it’s the undeniable duty of the press to ask whether the prosecutors adequately investigated the Daejang neighborhood developers as part of their investigation of the Busan Savings Bank. Describing the legitimate activities of the press as “manipulating public opinion” and promising to uncover the “people behind it” can only be understood as an attempt to tame media outlets that are critical of the Yoon administration.

Do the prosecutors really want to serve as the goons of the administration’s attempt to quash the press?

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