The News Affiliate Evaluation Committee (Evaluation Committee) decided to ‘downgrade’ Yonhap News, which has been broadcasting article-type advertisements (articles written in exchange for money) for 10 years. Yonhap News reported that Media Today first reported the transmission of article-type advertisements in July, and then deleted about 2,000 article-type advertisements at once and showed no sign of reflection. As a national key news agency, if they deceive readers while receiving more than 30 billion won in subsidies every year, they should take greater responsibility, but Yonhap News is showing the opposite side.
The situation has reached this point, and it can be said that the silence of the media also played a part. The review committee held a plenary meeting on the 12th and deliberated on the Yonhap News reevaluation (expulsion evaluation) agenda, and decided on Naver’s ‘Newsstand downgrade’ and Daum’s ‘search alliance downgrade’. In order to deal with this news, it is necessary to point out the actual situation of Yonhap News’ news advertisement transmission, which is the cause of the incident. For most media outlets, this is a daunting task. They are also sending out news articles.
As a result of a complete analysis of newstapa’s data on deliberation and decision-making on article-type advertisements in the first half of 2019, released by the Korea Advertising Autonomous Review Organization, a total of 3,189 article-type advertisements were found, with the Chosun Ilbo ranked first with 551 cases. Economic magazines such as Korea Economic Daily (415 cases) and Maeil Economic Daily (376 cases) took second and third place, followed by Asia Today, JoongAng Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, Seoul Economic Daily, Financial News, Ajou Economic Daily, and Busan Ilbo.
The media continued to monitor article-type advertisements today as well. Since the early 2000s, he has pointed out the problem of article-type advertisements and has reported in detail the actual cases of article-type advertisements through information disclosure requests. If you look at the details of the university’s public relations expenditures received by the Ministry of Education, it was found that Pusan National University and Soongsil University paid 20 million to 30 million won to Chosun, JoongAng, and Dong-A Ilbo under the pretext of interviewing the university president. In addition to these media, article-type advertisements are reported without notice in various media companies.
In other words, from the perspective of Yonhap News, they may feel unfair about ‘why are we only sanctioning what everyone is doing’, or they may think that only they are caught ‘unluckily’. In this atmosphere, the media are not reporting this issue head-on.
In the editorial of the Hankyoreh on the 15th, “Yeonhap News that sanctions on ‘article-type advertisements’ are ‘restrictions on the right to know’, deceiving readers like this is not only a violation of ‘media ethics’ but also a violation of the law. It is shameless to talk about ‘restrictions on the people’s right to know’.” The Hankyoreh said, “Yonhap News receives 30 billion won in government subsidies every year because it is the national key news agency.
Except for the Hankyoreh, there were no newspapers criticizing Yonhap News’ media ethics on the 15th and 16th. On the 15th, Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung and People’s Strength presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol each took a stand on Yonhap News, but this was also not published anywhere in the paper on the 16th.
If you look at the articles written online, there are mainly articles that argue that the review committee’s re-evaluation of Yonhap News is excessive. This is the content of criticism from the Yonhap News Agency and from the political circles.
Yonhap News, ‘contract termination effect suspension’ application… Legal response to portal (BBS, 16th)
Ahn Cheol-soo “Expulsion of Yonhap News Portal, Double Sanctions” (Maeil Shimbun, 16th)
Opposition runners “withdraw from Yonhap News” with one voice… Attention to portal reform legislation (Segye Ilbo, 16th)
Yonhap News, Legal Response to Portal Exit “Granting right to terminate contract without basis” (Asia Economy, 16th)
Lee · 尹 “You should reconsider Yonhap News’ ‘Portal Exit’… Abuse of portal authority, need to be controlled” (Seoul Economic Daily, 15th)
Lee Jae-myung “Exiting the Yonhap News portal is ‘pressing the press’… Legislation to control abuse of portal authority should be considered” (Kyunghyang Shimbun, 15th)
In particular, Yonhap News reported a total of 17 articles from the 15th to 16th at 2 pm that criticized the committee or reported their injustice.
Starting with an article titled ““Yonhap News portal withdrawal violates the Monopoly Regulation Act”.. Civic groups complained to the Fair Trade Commission” (15th), which conveyed the content raised by the civic group bar exam preparation students to the Fair Trade Commission on the 15th. Jun-ho Han, who proposed the amendment to the law containing the awareness of issues regarding the “News Communication Promotion Association “Neutralization of national key carriers and seeking legal remedies”” (15th) containing the position of the Korea News Agency, the management and supervision body of Yonhap News. “Professor Han Jun-ho, “Choose portal media according to your taste..Infringement of people’s rights”” (15th), who conducted a phone interview with a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, “Professor Song Kyung-jae” It seems they are using the company’s reports to form public opinion favorable to them, such as “The decision to cooperate with the press portal by the Jepyung Committee is unconstitutional” (15th).
In response, civic groups in the media industry all criticized Yonhap News. On the 15th, the Center for Journalism and Human Rights said, “Article advertisement is a legally prohibited matter. He stated that he would seek to respond to the decision from various angles, including legal action, and was consistent with the attitude of dignified. In response to Yonhap News’ statement on the 12th that “of course, it seriously restricts the people’s right to know,” the Citizens’ Alliance for Democracy and Media criticized it on the 16th, saying, “Rather than reflecting, they are still shouting about the ‘right to know’.”
As an accomplice to the act of selling article pages rather than advertisement pages for money, the media cannot even cite comments from these civic groups. As the two civic groups pointed out, future discussions need to move on to the issue of eradication of article-type advertisements and the subsidy (subscription fee) issue of Yonhap News, which the National Assembly decided to increase by 3 billion won to 35.8 billion won next year.
On the 15th and 16th, the media outlets that pointed out the issue of Yonhap News’ article-type advertisement and Yonhap News’ behavior were the Hankyoreh, Oh My News, Medias, and PD Journal.
