hankyoreh

A former CEO of the Segye Ilbo is suing the newspaper for nearly US$180,000 in damages for a dismissal he claimed was the result of pressure from the Blue House after reports on government interference by Chung Yoon-hoi, a longtime associate of President Park Geun-hye - her Chief of Staff when she was a second-term lawmaker.

“The Segye Ilbo wrongly bowed to Blue House pressure and dismissed me at a time when I was CEO and had authority to make editorial decisions,” Cho Han-kyu wrote in his recent complaint to Seoul Central District Court.

Cho went on to demand payment of 195 million won (US$178,000), corresponding to “the amount I would have received during the remaining 19 months of my three-year term, as guaranteed in the articles of association.”

Cho was appointed CEO in Oct. 2013 and dismissed at a provisional shareholders’ meeting in February 2015.

“Outwardly, this is a demand for payment of earnings for the remaining term, but the real reason I filed suit is because of the need to leave a clear record of press freedoms bowing under pressure from the powerful,” Cho said in an Apr. 8 telephone interview with the Hankyoreh.

“My concern is that things like this will keep happening, and the result will be a chilling effect on press freedoms,” he added.

Cho also wrote in his complaint that he suffered “intense pressure to step down from the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity maintenance foundation [the Unification Church] and other after the Chung Yoon-hoi document report.”

“In particular, the chief of staff to Kim Man-ho, secretary-general of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, called me to the coffee shop at Seoul’s Grand Hilton Hotel on January 31 of this year and told me that a key government figure had called Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja on January 29 and pressured the dismissal decision by saying the ‘Pandora’s box’ of the Unification Church would be opened if Cho Han-kyu was not let go,” Cho wrote in his complaint.

Cho was CEO of the Segye Ilbo on Nov. 28, 2014, when the newspaper published an exclusive front-page story on a document alleging government interference by Chung.

Kim Man-ho said in a phone call to the Hankyoreh on Apr. 8 that Cho’s claims are “baseless”.

“I met Cho, but I never mentioned him stepping down. His claim is totally false, and the facts will be revealed in court,” Kim said.

By Choi Won-hyung, staff reporter

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