hankyoreh

The government’s promotional film series, Daehan News, which disappeared from screens 15 years ago, reappeared yesterday. A short film borrowing its format from Gag Concert, a South Korean sketch-comedy TV show shown on the KBS2 network, promoting the government’s “Plan for the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project” played before the start of films at movie theaters nationwide. While the format of Daehan News may have changed from its predecessor’s newsreel format, the method of unilaterally promoting the government’s argument before a captured audience does not differ from the Daehan News of the authoritarian period.

Daehan News was a propaganda vehicle long misused in the dictatorship era under the pretext of enlightening the citizenry. It praised and promoted government policies at a time when there were no other mass culture venues other than theaters available, and dictators would go so far as distorting historical facts to their liking. Besides being unwelcome by the public, the termination of Daehan News in 1994 came about because the government realized it could not count on it having the intended promotional effect on the audience. It now exists as a source of comedy and parody of that period. The fact the government has revived it is no different from engaging in a comedic act. The anachronistic idea that this form of “citizen enlightenment” is even possible today is pathetic.

Protests and mockery is already spreading. It is said that a spontaneous campaign to boycott theaters has also emerged. As a citizen who’s right to choose has been ignored, engaging in a boycott would subsequently follow. Movie theaters should reveal the reason behind accepting the government request.

The Lee Myung-bak administration needs to engage in dialogue instead of packaging the river restoration project in an attempt to brainwash the citizenry through unilateral propaganda and in a way that the majority of the public opposes, and try listening to what the public is saying. The administration should cease engaging in retrograde behavior like bringing back Daehan News.

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