[The Chosun Ilbo, October 2 2007] Forced Standardized Reporting is Unacceptable

A presidential delegation of 300 will leave for Pyongyang for the second inter-Korean summit on Tuesday morning. Among them is a 50 member press pool, including 23 reporters from dailies, news agencies, and Internet newspapers, seven broadcast journalists, nine photographers and 11 TV cameramen.

I am one of the reporters, but I won't have much to do during my three day stay in Pyongyang. I have been tasked with covering a dinner to be hosted by the South Korean president on Wednesday, the second day of the summit, and a farewell luncheon to be hosted by his North Korean counterpart on Thursday. The reports on these events will be sent to Seoul as joint stories with the consent of the press pool members. The stories will be shared by all media outlets, bylined from the press pool reporting from Pyongyang.

...

Though we reporters will have little to do, I feel sorry for the public. No matter which newspaper they pick up, they'll get identical stories and identical photos. Same with the commentaries on the event. There is no room at all for individual reporters or their publishers to make their views known in the joint news stories.