Jung Jin-seok: "Citizen Media 'Mindeulle', Anti-Human Rights Violence Disguised as Media"

On the 10th, Jeong Jin-seok, Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, attended the Emergency Response Committee meeting held at the National Assembly and became emotional while speaking about the victims of the Itaewon tragedy. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Jeong Jin-seok, Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, criticized the citizen media outlet 'Mindeulle,' which disclosed the list of victims of the Itaewon accident, calling it "the most despicable and anti-human rights violence disguised as media and politics."

On the 16th, Chairman Jeong stated on his social network service (SNS), "The media in question claimed to be a news outlet but showed no sense of responsibility as the press."

Chairman Jeong pointed out that Mindeulle published the names of 155 victims without the consent of their bereaved families, deleted the poster within half a day, and requested families who did not want their names disclosed to contact them via email. He criticized this by saying, "They did not even follow the basic principle of confirming the wishes of the bereaved families before disclosure and took the stance of 'We will disclose first, and if you do not want it, contact us afterward.'"

Regarding Mindeulle's claim that "the government and media have disclosed victim lists whenever a major disaster occurs," he said, "This is completely untrue," explaining, "For example, in the case of the Sewol ferry disaster, there was an unavoidable aspect to confirming the identities of the victims, and the bereaved families agreed. Among the press, there was an implicit agreement to be careful not to spread the names and identities of the victims beyond what was absolutely necessary, and this was respected."

Chairman Jeong stated, "There is a fundamental difference between responsible media introducing stories after going through a proper reporting process and obtaining consent from sources, and disclosing an anonymous list without consent. The former is reporting; the latter is violence and agitation."

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