Is Son Seok-hee smiling now?

The so-called “Sung Wan-jong gate” is now spreading to the media beyond the political circles. This was sparked by anchor Son Seok-hee of nationwide general cable TV network JTBC who aired a voice recorded file of the late Chairman Sung Wan-jong of Keangnam Enterprises at the second segment of his news shows called “Newsroom.” The voice file was recorded when the late chairman was having an interview with a reporter from the Kyunghyang Shinmun before he took his life. His bereaved family and the Kyunghyang Shinmum implied the possibility for filing a lawsuit by saying, “The JTBC revealed the file without prior permission.” Now, war clouds are gathering between the newspaper and the cable TV network.

It turned out that a digital-related forensic science expert surnamed Kim gave this file at his discretion to the JTBC as he was involved in the work when the Kyunghyang Shinmun was submitting the file to the prosecution. It can’t be tolerated to air the file recorded by another media without its permission no matter how fierce the competition would be among media. Reporters are required vocational ethics that are by far stronger than other areas as they are supposed to pursue truth and dig out illegality and injustice. The stringent criteria used for others should be used for them in a more stringent manner.

Apart from a legal judgment or work ethics in media, this case crossed the line that the media must not cross given Korean people’s sentiment on the deceased. The bereaved family of Chairman Sung contends that they strongly demanded to stop airing of the file by saying “We do not want to open the recorded voice of the dead,” but were ignored. To air the voice of the deceased in broadcasting show has nothing to do with public interests. The media has long lost its trust due to the politicized motivation and this incident reminds of yet another challenging task of doing away with commercialism that the media should carry out.

Anchor Son Seok-hee argued that the releasing of voice file was to satisfy “citizen’s right to know” but some see that it was to raise the viewers ratings. On the day when the file was aired, the rating of his show’s second segment surpassed 4 percent, nearly twice higher than the first segment with 2 percent. Anchor Son has occupied the first place in an annual survey on the most trustworthy journalist and the most influential person in Korea. Many people would wonder whether he is smiling now.

mskoh119@donga.com