[Editorial] Truth and the spirit of a free press

[Hankyoreh, October 30 2008]

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission had officially confirmed that the predecessor to the National Intelligence Service, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, was behind the Park Chung-hee administration’s attacks on companies advertising in the newspaper the DongA Ilbo in 1974 and the newspaper’s sudden firing of dozens of its journalists in 1975. According to the commission’s report, the DongA Ilbo was in collusion with the KCIA in going along with demands that certain journalists be removed from their jobs, essentially handing over its personnel management authority to the government, meaning the newspaper has responsibility to bear for its participation in suppression of press freedoms.