South Korea

Dear President Lee: The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by your administration's increasing pressure on the Republic of Korea's media. The arrest on April 28 of four staff members with your country's second-largest broadcaster, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), is only the most recent step in what appears to be a broader effort to stifle independent reporting critical of government policies.

Park Dae-sung, who blogs under the name Minerva, was acquitted of charges in South Korea on April 20, 2009, under a rarely used law of "spreading false information with the intent of harming the public interest." The Seoul court that heard his case ruled that Park wrote without malicious intent,...

New York, January 29, 2009--A South Korean blogger in custody since January 7, charged with spreading false information online, should be set free, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. ...

Hong Kong, August 15, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned that the government of South Korea ordered home documentary filmmaker Kim Young Me from Iraq, where she was on assignment....

NOVEMBER 15, 2005 Posted: December 2, 2005 New Tang Dynasty TV HARASSED Chang Sik Lee and Choi Seon Hee, reporters for New Tang Dynasty TV station, a New York-based independent Chinese television station, were banned from the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) meeting in Busan, South Korea, according to news reports....

Overviewby Abi Wright Threats to press freedom spiked throughout Asia in 2004, even as the news media claimed significant accomplishments. Across the region, 2004 was an election year, with citizens casting ballots in nations such as Afghanistan, whose landmark vote was peaceful and orderly, and India, where more than 370...

North Korea While foreign analysts kept guessing at the state of nuclear development in North Korea, one thing remained certain in 2004: There is no free press in the country, only government outlets that voice the pronouncements of Kim Jong Il's authoritarian regime....

South Korea Innovative news coverage on the Internet added fresh viewpoints to the South Korean media, but the ruling Uri Party's proposal for newspaper reform caused concern in 2004. The active and varied media, while politically divided, avidly covered political scandals, including the messy impeachment of President Roh Moo Hyun...

CPJ Update April 16, 2004 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists Return to front page | See previous Updates...