Thursday, May 22, 2008

[The Hankyoreh, May 15 2008] [Editorial] Twenty years of The Hankyoreh

Thursday, May 15, marks the twentieth anniversary of the birth of The Hankyoreh, the first newspaper in the world owned entirely by public shareholders. We cannot put in words the sentiment we are overcome with as we look back at the long and difficult path we’ve taken since we began. The death throes of dictatorship were still being felt during The Hankyoreh’s early years, and the unseen persecution we faced meant there were always questions as to whether the paper would survive. Editorial advisor Lee Yeong-hee was arrested just for putting together plans to begin covering North Korea from inside the country, and our editorial offices were once served with a search warrant.

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In the future as well, we, The Hankyoreh, will be an unchanging monitor and critic of power, making clear at every turn the errors of the elements with political and economic control. We will grasp the new call of the times and lead the way in inter-Korean reconciliation and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula, just as we have since we first began. We will take an open approach and prepare a place for discussion for all, this while giving ear to those whose views and claims differ from ours. On this the day of our twentieth anniversary we reaffirm the validity of the spirit with which we first began, that of the Korean nation, democracy and civil rights. We will walk the way of the progressive media, so as to attain a life as a warm community, this with a flexible composure that never goes against the flow of the times and never loses hope.

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