In South Korea, nostalgia for journalist’s stabbing stokes media freedom fears: ‘I felt my hair stand on end’
- Korean media interpreted senior presidential secretary Hwang Sang-moo’s recent reference to Oh Hong-keun’s 1988 stabbing as a veiled threat
- Hwang later apologised, but critics say the incident casts a spotlight on the shrinking space for media dissent under President Yoon Suk-yeol
Hwang Sang-moo, senior presidential secretary for civil and social affairs, made the suggestion last week while dining with journalists assigned to the presidential press corps.
But Yoon’s presidential office insists his government “thoroughly” respects press freedom and the news media’s role in a functioning democracy, asserting that it never uses pressure tactics against any journalists.
“You MBC, listen to me carefully”, Hwang said on Thursday last week in reference to one of South Korea’s leading broadcasters, which has been at odds with the government due to “biased” and antagonistic news reporting.
The presidential secretary reminisced about how a journalist who wrote a magazine column in 1988 criticising the country’s lingering militarist culture was stabbed by three military intelligence agents in what became known as the “sashimi knife terror attack”.
Hwang said the victim, Oh Hong-keun, brought trouble down upon himself by writing articles that were critical of the government, hinting that journalists who criticise Yoon’s government could meet the same fate.