The Power and Creativity of Editing: The Historic Role of A Magazine - PDF document

The Power and Creativity of Editing: The Historic Role of A Magazine of Current Issues, A People's Magazine Creating the History through Its Recording - With the case of Monthly Chosun which won the freedom of speech through the power of facts, readership and market while struggling against the Regime of South Korea in 1980s and the Regime of North Korea in 1990s Gab-Je Cho CEO/Editor Monthly Chosun, Korea To be presented at the FIPP Seoul Conference on April 18(Thurs.), 2002 Abstract Korean magazines of current issues, which are represented by Monthly Chosun and Shin-Dong-A whose readership is mainly opinion leaders of Korean society, have been exercising a great political power through their in-depth reports and featured and exclusive news coverages. In 1980s when Korea was ruled by the authoritative government, these two magazines fought against the government's oppression more courageously than even newspapers and TV/Radio media by publishing behind-the- scenes political stories and articles criticizing the government. By gaining a great support from the general public, they recorded the sales volume equal to that of newspapers. The competitive coverage of these two magazines and expanded sales of their copies

have become the driving force of expanding the freedom of speech. As Democratization Movement became the main stream of Korean society after the General Election on February 12,1985, these two magazines enjoyed their far-reaching influences and explosively increased sales of their copies to such an extent that the opposite political party and the public opinion backed up these magazines powerfully enough for the government to give up the measure of banning the sales of these two magazines by force. During the Age of Democratization after 1988, Monthly Chosun selected the North Korean Regime's oppression on human rights as a new item and reported this issue intensively. By doing so, these magazines could lead South Korean government to take the policy of accommodating the runaway North Koreans. The reporters of Monthly Chosun became even activists rescuing the runaway people from North Korea. 1. Educating the General Public and Checking the Powers Dr. Seung-Man Rhee who was a main actor in constructing the Republic of Korea was a journalist who founded Maeil Newspaper in 1898, which was the first daily newspaper in Korea, and unfolded the enlightenment movement through the press. Such roles of the press centering around daily newspapers as educating the general public and checking the powers continued after the national foundation. The Students' Revolution in April, 1960 collapsed the regime led by Seung-Man Rhee, which was ignited by newspapers' criticism against Rhee's Regime. Especially the monthly magazine Sasanggye, under the leadership of its President Jun- Ha Chang, provided the intellectuals with logics and rationales for criticizing the government and expanding democracy while serving itself as their plaza. Park Jeong-Hee Regime which took power through the military coup d'etat on May 16, 1961 continued its relationship of high tension with the press, students, and intellectuals. Park's Regime positioned itself as such that national security and economic development were the most important tasks under the situation of military confrontation

between the South Korea and the North Korea, and that the goals of modernizing the Fatherland, enriching the nation and strengthening the military forces should be achieved as soon as possible considering the cold reality of Korea even though the price of limiting political freedom to some extent should be paid. The press people and intellectuals, on the other hand, criticized Park's Regime saying that "Any limit or modification of free democracy is a dictatorship since free democracy is something divine that cannot be violated." The 18-year-run Park's Era ended when President Park Jeong-Hee was assassinated on October 26, 1979 by Director Jae-Gyu Kim of Korean CIA. A series of developments, such as Bu-Ma Incident which was a prelude to the president assassination, and political conflicts surrounding the episode of striking off the name Kim Young-Sam from congressmanship, could not have played the role of igniting the collapse of Park's Regime if there had been no news coverage on these stories by the press at that time. 2. The Political Behind-the-Scenes Story during Park Jeong-Hee Regime Monthly Chosun was launched in April, 1980 by Chosun Daily Newspaper. One month later, new military leaders headed by General Chun Doo-Whan took power and oppressed the freedom of speech and hence the freedom of news coverage and editing was greatly shrinked. Stories unfavorable to the Regime could not be reported. Monthly Chosun and Shin-Dong-A took a detouring strategy of "revealing what is happening today by uncovering what happened yesterday if today's issues cannot by reported as they are." Monthly Chosun covered a feature story of "Documentary May 16 Military Coup D'etat" in the March issue of 1982. The documentary was the behind-the-scenes story of the Military Coup D'etat led by Major General Park Jeong-Hee on May 16, 1961. Thanks to this story, a large volume of copies issued in March, 1982 sold very well. For about a decade since then, stories about May 16 Coup D'etat has become a popular menu of magazines of current issues including Monthly Chosun and Shin-Dong-A. Chon Doo-Whan Regime which took power through coup detat in May, 1980

strengthened the restrictions over the press, but partially permitted, though not encouraged, to write political behind-the-scenes stories of Park's Regime, instead. The measures to restrict the freedom of speech at that time were taken by National Security Planning Agency (NSPA) and Ministry of Culture and Information (MCI). Both NSPA and MCI dispatched their men-in-charge to every company of the press. At that time, Monthly Chosun and Shin-Dong-A were the major objects requiring their special inspections and investigations. Due to their involvement, magazine printing was frequently stopped and articles which they judged problematic were often entirely or partially crossed out. 3. Competition over Exclusive News Coverages and Increased Number of Copies Sold: The Driving Force in Expanding the Freedom of Speech It was in the May and June issues of 1985 that Monthly Chosun covered the story of so-called October 26 Incident, i.e., the assassination of President Park Jeong-Hee by Director Jae-Gyu Kim of Korean CIA. Shin-Dong-A also covered the behind-the-scenes story of October 26 Incident one month later. As the sharp argument of Monthly Chosun and Shin-Dong-A got nearer to the heart of the secret story of Park's Regime, the number of these two magazines sold dashed to the level of 100,000~200,000 copies. These two magazines competitively infringed into the taboo line drawn by Chon's Regime one bite after another and stimulated readers' curiosity. Readers, who were greatly dissatisfied with the circumstance that political activities were restricted in reality under Chon's Regime, sought a sort of substitutive satisfaction by reading the inside stories about power struggles under the authoritative regime of the past. If one of these two magazines broke the sanctuary first, the other magazine placed another exclusive news coverage which was advanced one step further into the prohibited line. By doing so, they expanded the freedom of speech. The competitive coverage of exclusive news and the increased sales of magazines which were followed were a great stimulus and a powerful driving force in expanding the freedom of speech. Then, reporters' sense of justice and mission that they reported only the truth was added.

4. Reports on Gwangju Incident In the summer of 1985, the opposite party raised at the National Assembly the issue of suppressing the demonstration which had been unfolded in Gwangju in May, 1980 through employing military forces. Taking this opportunity, Monthly Chosun and Shin- Dong-A placed a featured story on Gwangju Incident in their July issue in 1985. Stories about Gwangju Incident was the most sensitive matter which Chon's Regime wanted to hide. The Editor-in-Chief of Monthly Chosun, therefore, held meetings with the Management before forwarding the manuscripts to the printing company and reviewed the articles closely. By doing so, Monthly Chosun tried to protect itself from the pressure and protest from citizens as well as from the Regime. Both the July issue of Monthly Chosun and that of Shin-Dong-A which dealt with Gwangju Incident recorded the highest sales figure in history, respectively. 5. The Highest Number of Copies Sold Amid the Enthusiasm for Democratization. The tough competition between Monthly Chosun and Shin-Dong-A over exclusive news stories was a decisive factor contributing to the increase of magazine sales and to the expansion of the freedom of speech. Editors-in-Chief and reporters of these two magazines paid all their keen attention to what stories the rival magazine would report in their following issue. They were all obsessed by the idea that they should advance the exclusive news stories which were expected to be reported by the rival magazine. Such a sense of obsession made reporters courageous, which became the power resisting against the Regime's measures of oppression. Amid the chain reaction going like this: competition over exclusive news stories → expanded freedom of speech → readers' supportive reaction → increased magazine sales, magazines were winning the widest range of freedom of speech among the press in Korea.