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A Resolution Issued by the National Movement for Press Reform
June 29, 2001

We call upon the prosecution to investigate and prosecute to the full letter of the law the owners and publishers of newspapers who are suspected of breaking the law!

We are once again shocked by the results of the tax audits of newspapers that were announced today and the details of the charges the National Tax Service filed with the prosecution against the owners and publishers. In particular, the personal irregularities committed by President Bang Sang-hoon and Managing Director Bang Kye-sung of the Chosun Ilbo, Honorary Chairman Kim Byung-kwan and Vice Chairman Kim Byung-kun of the Dong-A Ilbo and Chairman Cho Hee-jun of Next Media Group, an affiliate of the Kookmin Ilbo, evidenced immoral, unethical and behavior outside societal norms that could hardly be imagined as acts by controlling shareholders of newspapers. Looking at the evidence, we can only come to the conclusion that they have exposed their duplicitous nature by claiming on the one hand, who, as owners of mass media companies claim to be virtuous leaders of our society, yet, on the other hand, are caught in acts of malfeasance.

We demand that those owners and publishers who were charged with personal irregularities resign their posts voluntarily. There is no excuse for their personal wrongdoings. We would like to make it clear that as owners and publishers of newspapers, positions that require highest morality, they appear to have lost the ethical makeup necessary to carry out this duty. We will not accept them if they remain at the newspapers, and attempt to set the social agenda and influence the public. We advise them that they should apologize to the nation immediately for their wrongdoings and leave their positions.

We also urge the prosecution to sternly punish owners and publishers of newspapers who are found to have engaged in criminal activity in accordance with the law. We sternly warn the prosecution not to be lenient to the owners and publishers of the newspapers due to political considerations, as happened in the past. We have stressed on numerous occasions that owners and publishers of newspapers are not above the rule of law. We stress this point once again. The basic principle of the rule of law, which was seldom applied to the news media in the past, must be strictly applied this time in connection with the results of the tax audits. No privilege or leniency whatsoever should be granted. The public is demanding that the authorities investigate, prosecute and, if found guilty, arrest these owners and publishers for their flouting of social and legal conventions. Should the prosecution betray the principle of rule of law and accord them with privileged treatment, the tax audits of newspapers and their rationale will become seriously circumspect. We also warn that the tax system will face considerable public resistance.

More than 5,500 religious, civic and journalistic leaders as well as dedicated political and social activists and conscientious past and present members of the press issue this declaration today in the cause of realizing genuine press reforms. We hereby resolve to eradicate newspaper owners' and publishers' irregularities, illegalities and anti-social and immoral behavior that stem from past practices.