[Editorial] GNP, Bystander of Media Lynch

“The Government Information Agency has infringed the people’s right to know and wasted tax payers’ money in the name of the ‘Advanced Media Support System,’ while the people’s attention has been focused on the inter-Korean summit and the presidential election,” Lee Ju-yeong, chair of the Grand National Party Policy Committee, said on Thursday during a meeting of senior party members. Meanwhile, GNP floor leader Kim Hyong-O also said, “If the GNP comes to power, the first thing it will do is restore the press briefing room and guarantee freedom of the press.” Although their remarks sound good, we cannot help but suspect that they are intended as mere lip service, since their words have thus far been void of action.

As Lee indicated in his statement, the Roh Moo-hyun administration has persistently pushed for a ban on journalists’ news coverage activities in government ministry buildings by taking advantage of the inter-Korean summit and the presidential election. The Cabinet recently approved the additional hiring of security guards to check journalists from entering government offices. However, although the government has decided to squander taxpayers’ money to hamper journalists from monitoring the government, the GNP has been all talk and no action, saying, “If the GNP wins the presidential election, we will bring back press rooms.” The GNP, however, is not fully aware of the fact that the crucial issues are the infringement of the people’s right to know and the destruction of press freedom, aka, a pillar of democracy, rather than the disappearance of space for journalists.

As the largest parliamentary force, the least that the GNP can do is open standing committees to address anti-democratic and anti-public measures and the government’s oppression of the press. While the main opposition party has chewed contentious issues with the “teeth of herbivores,” puppets of President Roh, such as Government Information Agency head Kim Chang-ho and presidential publicity secretary Yang Jeong-cheol, have bitten the press without interference from the “teeth of fierce animals.” Non-democratic figures in the police, including Lee Taek-soon, the director of the National Police Agency, have been physically blocking the people’s right to know on crimes which break out an average of 950 cases a day.

It will take more than six-months for the new government to take power. So is the GNP saying that the people should live in the dark until then? This is a critical time for the media to check the government. Although the journalists must be busy monitoring whether the government bribes voters or the government officials maintain political neutrality, they have been thrown out onto the street. However, the GNP is still an onlooker. Its leadership seems to be void of brain.