Dismissed journalists' group holds national forum at National Assembly

State surveillance after firings called 'state violence'

Assembly Speaker Cho vows to help restore dismissed journalists' honor

Participants pose for a group photo at the "National Forum on the Historical Trial of the 1980 Forced Dismissal of Journalists," held Monday at the National Assembly Library auditorium in Yeouido, Seoul. From fourth from right: Rep. Cho Kyung-tae, National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik, Kim Jae-hong, co-chair of the 1980 Dismissed Journalists' Association, Seoul Education Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik, Rep. Jeon Jin-suk and Rep. Jeong Jin-uk. [Provided by the 1980 Dismissed Journalists' Association]
Participants pose for a group photo at the "National Forum on the Historical Trial of the 1980 Forced Dismissal of Journalists," held Monday at the National Assembly Library auditorium in Yeouido, Seoul. From fourth from right: Rep. Cho Kyung-tae, National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik, Kim Jae-hong, co-chair of the 1980 Dismissed Journalists' Association, Seoul Education Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik, Rep. Jeon Jin-suk and Rep. Jeong Jin-uk. [Provided by the 1980 Dismissed Journalists' Association]

The 1980 Dismissed Journalists' Association — a group of journalists forced to put down their pens under the political repression of the new military regime in the 1980s — held a national forum Monday at the National Assembly Library auditorium in Yeouido, Seoul. The group condemned what it called sweeping state violence, saying authorities had subjected dismissed journalists to employment bans, surveillance and monitoring even after their firings, and charged that traces of press suppression were visible in the Dec. 3 emergency martial law declaration as well.

Thirty-five dismissed journalists filed a damages lawsuit against the state last November, citing harm including restrictions on reemployment after their dismissals. The Seoul Central District Court held the first hearing in the case on Thursday. The association called it "a historic case in which a court is for the first time conducting a full examination of the state's responsibility for the dismissal of journalists in the 1980s."

Han Jong-beom, the association's standing chair, said in his opening remarks, "The Chun Doo-hwan clique was more thorough, more cunning and more barbaric in seizing control of the press than any other dictatorial force."

The event was attended by National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik, ruling and opposition lawmakers, Seoul Education Superintendent Jeong Geun-sik, and representatives from the Korean Federation of Press Unions, the Korea Journalists Association, the Citizens' Coalition for Democratic Media and the May 18 Memorial Foundation in Gwangju.

Speaker Cho said in his congratulatory address, "A trial has begun for the first time to hold the state accountable for the press crackdown of the 1980s. The National Assembly will also do its part through institutional means to help establish the truth and restore the honor of dismissed journalists." He went on to say that "the struggle of the dismissed journalists who refused censorship to bring the truth of Gwangju to light is the embodiment of the May 18 spirit. I will do my utmost to enshrine that spirit in the constitutional preamble through constitutional reform."

The association's leadership issued a joint statement welcoming the speaker's remarks, saying it "extends deep respect and a warm welcome to the Assembly Speaker's sincere condemnation of the forced dismissal of journalists and his commitment to enshrining the May 18 spirit in the constitutional preamble."

After seizing power in 1980, the new military regime used critical press coverage of the Gwangju pro-democracy movement and journalists' refusal to submit to censorship as a pretext to dismiss journalists at newspapers and broadcasters across the country. It drew up lists of those who had refused to cooperate with press censorship and pressured media outlets to fire them, forcing more than 900 journalists out of their jobs.

Kim Jae-hong, the association's co-chair and a former Dong-A Ilbo reporter who also served as a member of the 17th National Assembly, delivered the keynote address and said the dismissals "stripped journalists of their constitutionally guaranteed freedom to choose their occupation through employment bans and restrictions, and extinguished their fundamental rights wholesale through surveillance and monitoring." He also said that the Yoon Suk Yeol government's alleged plot to cut power and water to certain media outlets immediately after declaring martial law on Dec. 3 was "an unparalleled act of press repression."

In a thematic presentation, Kim Ju-eon, former chair of the Korea Press Foundation, revealed that after martial law was declared nationwide — except on Jeju Island — in late October 1979 and until it was lifted in January 1981, the new military regime subjected more than 1.08 million news reports to prior censorship and suppressed some 29,000 items. "Press censorship and the purging of critical journalists were indispensable tools of insurrection," he said.


nyang@heraldcorp.com