Is President Lee’s Demand to Cancel Korean Newspaper Award a Threat to Press Freedom?

The People Power Party accused President Lee Jae-myung of trying to silence the public after he called for the revocation of a Korean Newspaper Award granted for reporting on the Daejang-dong development allegations.

Park Seong-hoon, the party’s chief spokesman, said in a statement on the 24th that the president used social media to demand the outlet that reported the Daejang-dong corruption allegations “return the Korean Newspaper Award,” describing the move as an overt attack on the press.

Earlier, the president shared an article on X (formerly Twitter) noting that a news outlet received the Korean Newspaper Award from the Korea Newspaper Association in 2023 for its Daejang-dong coverage. He wrote that the piece was not fact-finding but “a massive fabrication,” and asked, “Shouldn’t the award be canceled and returned, with an apology and a correction to the reporting?”

Park responded that the Korean Newspaper Award, presented by the Korea Newspaper Association, exists to encourage watchdog journalism and reporting in the public interest. For a sitting president to unilaterally label specific reporting “fabricated” and demand the award’s cancellation, he said, amounts to press suppression and a direct repudiation of the award committee’s authority.

He added that this goes beyond a mere “warning to the press.” It is an attempt to coerce the entire public into silence and a blatant violation of the public’s right to know. Rather than simply rewriting the past or distorting reality, it reads like an effort by those in power to erase inconvenient truths.

The press is the last bulwark against unchecked authority. For the president to personally tell a news outlet to “return the award” and “correct its reporting” is not criticism but pressure applied by power — an order from authority rather than an opinion, Park said. He warned this is a serious matter that could undermine the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press.

Park urged that if the president is so confident of his position, he should not hide behind his office to carry out harsh media suppression. He should submit to the judicial process. Rather than bullying a news organization into returning an award, the appropriate course is for the president himself to relinquish his authority and face trial as his duty before the people.

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