[The Chosun Ilbo, June 18 2008] Telephone Terror Targets Newspaper Advertisers

Small and medium-sized businesses that advertise in the Chosun Ilbo and other conservative newspapers are being hounded by activists who take exception to the dailies’ reportage on the protests against the import of U.S. beef. One victim is the owner of a travel agency with three staff, who on Tuesday was forced to cancel a contract for a 45-seater charter bus he had signed three days earlier. He offers a package tour costing W23,000 (US$1=W1,024) per traveler but, unusually, nobody applied. Over the last five days, he chartered only three buses with less than half of the seats filled. "I can't understand why I've been driven into this state,” he said. “I wish somebody would explain it to me."