Strong Condemnation from Media Union Against Yoon's Promise to "Overhaul the Media Union"

Yoon: "Malicious Actions Led by the Press Union"
Press Union: "Beyond Abusive Language, False Information... Deceiving Voters"
"A Dictatorial Idea to Practically Eradicate the Press"

Six media professional organizations, including the National Union of Mediaworkers, the Korea Journalists Association, the Korea PD Federation, the Broadcast Journalists Federation, the Korea Broadcast Technicians Federation, and the Korea Video Journalists Association, held a press conference in front of the People Power Party Central Party Office in Yeouido, Seoul, condemning Candidate Yoon's remarks. Photo by National Union of Mediaworkers

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Jung-wan] Media organizations have expressed opposition to Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, for his harsh criticism of the press union.

On the 6th, at a campaign rally in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, Yoon said, "The Democratic Party regime is using militant unions as vanguards to carry out all sorts of malicious acts, and the foremost spearhead among them is the press union." He added, "Before political reform, the press union must be overhauled first," and accused the union of "repeatedly engaging in absurd false reporting, deceiving the public, and brainwashing them with fabricated conspiracies."

In response, six media professional organizations?including the Broadcast Journalists Association, the National Union of Mediaworkers, the Korea Journalists Association, the Korea Broadcast Technicians Federation, the Korea Video Journalists Association, and the Korea PD Association?held a press conference on the 7th in front of the People Power Party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. They stated, "Candidate Yoon deceived and incited voters with falsehoods that go beyond mere harsh words at the Uijeongbu rally," and warned, "He must be held accountable for spreading false information."

The organizations questioned, "How exactly have the 16,000 members of the press union acted as the vanguard of militant unions to extend the Democratic Party's rule?" and countered, "Throughout last year, the press union has led strong criticism and protest campaigns against the Democratic Party, especially regarding improvements to public broadcasting governance and amendments to the Media Arbitration Act."

Regarding Yoon's statement about overhauling the press union, they criticized, "Saying that the press union must be overhauled is nothing short of a dictatorial idea to implement media suppression reminiscent of the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations, and even the media annihilation during the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan eras." They added, "Claiming that the press union must be 'overhauled' before political reform is a blatant threat to unleash another storm of bloodshed on public media, including public broadcasting, immediately upon taking power."

They further stated, "We judge that anyone who arrogantly threatens to annihilate critical media even before taking office has already lost the qualifications to be a presidential candidate of a democratic republic."

After the press conference, the media union collaboration groups delivered a statement regarding Yoon's remarks to the People Power Party.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.