hankyoreh

President Yoon Suk-yeol fields questions from the press as he heads into the presidential office in Yongsan on Nov. 10. (presidential pool photo)

The presidential office’s decision to prohibit MBC reporters from boarding the presidential jet during President Yoon Suk-yeol’s tour of Southeast Asia, scheduled to span from Friday through Wednesday, is rousing wide-spanning criticism.

Restricting the journalistic activities of a broadcaster that has been critical of the administration while citing “manipulated, distorted, and biased reporting” is unprecedented. Several local media organizations and the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club have strongly condemned the decision, with some calling it “an obvious challenge to the media’s freedom of speech.”

When asked Thursday about the decision to ban MBC reporters from the presidential jet, Yoon said, “A lot of taxpayers’ money is spent on overseas trips by the president, and that’s an important aspect of the national interest.”

“We've been providing a service to help with coverage of foreign policy and security issues, and I'd like you to accept it in those terms,” the president said of the ban.

The message that the presidential office sent to the MBC on Wednesday night stated, “MBC has not taken any corrective measures against a series of incidents such as the manipulation of subtitles, attempts to instigate conflict with allied nations, distortions that failed to make clear the use of a body double, and biased broadcasting.”

The presidential office listed as reasons for its decision the fact that MBC was the first broadcaster to report Yoon’s hot mic gaffe during his visit to the US and that it failed to clarify that a body double resembling first lady Kim Keon-hee was used in its investigative journalism program, “PD Note.”

Journalists have reacted vocally to the presidential office’s decision.

MBC has responded by saying that the ban of a certain broadcaster from the presidential jet is “unprecedented and was unheard of even during the era of dictatorship,” and that it “clearly restricts media coverage.” The Hankyoreh, MBC, and the Kyunghyang Shinmun will protest this decision by flying commercial airlines to cover Yoon’s trip to Cambodia and Indonesia.

The presidential office’s press corps also issued a statement expressing “immense regret” about the decision to ban reporters from Air Force One. The press pool said it “cannot agree” with the presidential office’s characterization of presidential jet access as “providing a service to the press” and asked that the decision be withdrawn.

The Broadcasting Journalists Association, the National Union of Media Workers, the Journalists Association of Korea and five other associations issued an urgent joint statement that slammed the presidential office’s decision as “an unprecedented act of suppression and violence against the media, and a direct challenge to the freedom of the press that is put forth in the Constitution.”

Legacy organizations such as the Struggle Committee to Defend Press Freedom at the Dong-A, and the board of directors of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club also issued statements criticizing the decision.

The presidential office countered such statements by saying it had “taken the measure to ensure that the national interest was not damaged again” by limiting certain “services” it had provided to the press.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter; Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporter; Suh Jung-min, staff reporter

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