The relationship between presidents and press

There are three major daily newspapers in Korea. They have supported the conservative party, Grand National Party, from the beginning until now. For last four years, while the progressive party was ruling, they had spoken the worst of the ruling Uri party. At last the president, Mr. Roh, closed the pressroom in the Blue House, because he thought the reporters always had defended their owner’s benefits against the policy of the government. The press protested that government's plan seriously damaged the freedom of the press in Korea by restricting reporters' entry to government offices and preventing public servants from talking with journalists freely, thus also limiting the public's right to know.

The criticism of the president and the government in these newspapers has reached to the highest level right before the presidential election. Every day they poured the malicious remarks about the president, Mr. Roh and the failure of the government’s policies in their newspapers. So lots of people were taken in by the news. In addition, the papers are so friendly to the candidate of GNP, Mr. Lee, even though he had a big scandal of a financial fraud, they spared comments about it. Therefore they played a big role for Mr. Lee to be elected as a president.

First Assignment, Week One

Hi there!

Your first assignment is to write a short post describing the press in your country. You can write about the press in general, about a particular newspaper, radio station or TV station. You can also write about the tendancies in the press: i.e. government-run press, independent press, on-line bloggers, etc. If you write about a specific news organization, you should include a link.