TODAY’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN SOUTH KOREA MAY SOLVE INTERMINABLE PRESS ROOM ROW
December 19th 2007 01:36
Some relief in sight to the rather bizarre South Korean press room long-drawn-out debacle, with Reporters Without Borders also urging for resolution.
It has appealed to “whichever candidate wins today’s presidential elections to find a solution to a row over the removal of press rooms from within the country's ministries.
The administration decided in May 2007, at the initiative of President Roh Moo-hyun, to close most press rooms inside public buildings and construct new ones but journalists were then barred from free access to ministries and major administrative buildings.
The government adopted the new rules under the heading "Steps to develop a modern support system for the media", but most journalists' organisations objected to them as an attempt to restrict access to information. Civil servants can no longer speak directly to the press.
The journalists in the protest refused to use the new rooms and now 'camp out' in the corridors of the various administrations.
The authorities on October 11 closed press rooms which had been used for decades within the main administrative buildings. The internet was cut off and equipment removed.
Reporters Without Borders also called on the candidates to make public their position on a reform of Article 7 of the national security law, which still allows journalists to be imprisoned for expressing any sympathy with the regime in North Korea.
"It is not a sign of weakness towards the totalitarian regime in North Korea to remove penalties from the law which are contrary to freedom of expression," the organisation said.
- From MediaBlab
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