Category: journalism (Page 2 of 2)

Now that I have had this confirmed, I would like to say I am appalled by the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club’s latest example of non-journalism — they did indeed turn down a request by their members to have Samsung whistleblower Kim Yong-chul address the Club.

The SFCC is no stranger to betraying journalistic principles for cowardly political reasons. Back in 2005, it turned down an offer to have the Premiere of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian, talk to the Club in a video conference call (thanks to the club’s 2nd vice president, a journalist from China). The SFCC members were upset enough they added regulations to the bylaws to prevent that sort of thing from happening again. But I guess Club rules do not count for much.

Whatever you think of the merits of Kim assertions, his book Think Samsung is a big deal. It has sold over 120,000 copies, despite being almost completely ignored by the local press. Here are the key points from Choe Sang-hun’s article in the New York Times:

Mr. Kim joined the company in 1997 after making his name as a star prosecutor who investigated the corruption of Chun Doo-hwan, the former military strongman. He became Samsung’s top legal counsel before quitting in 2004. He went public with his allegations of wrongdoing three years later.

Even for South Koreans accustomed to corruption scandals, his assertions were staggering.

Mr. Kim accused Mr. Lee and his loyal aides of having stolen as much as 10 trillion won, or $9 billion, from Samsung subsidiaries and stashed it in stock and bank accounts illegally opened in the names of executives.

The book alleges that they shredded books, fabricated evidence and bribed politicians, bureaucrats, prosecutors, judges and journalists, mainly to ensure that they would not stand in the way of Mr. Lee’s illegal transfer of corporate control to his only son, Lee Jae-yong, 41.

In his book, Mr. Kim depicts Mr. Lee and “vassal” executives at Samsung as bribing thieves who “lord over” the country, its government and media. He portrays prosecutors as opportunists who are ruthless to those they regard as “dead” powers, like a former president, but subservient to and afraid of Samsung, which he calls the “power that never dies.”

I cannot imagine this sort of thing happening at the Foreign Correspondent Clubs in Tokyo or Hong Kong.  Those clubs actually look out for the needs of foreign correspondents first and take journalism seriously.  Indeed, local journalists in Japan sometimes use foreign reporters to break news that is considered too sensitive for the local press (especially stories involving the royal family).

On the plus side, apparently the SFCC members are mostly pretty upset about what happened, so hopefully something will be done. But the SFCC board has done this sort of thing before, and I fear that they will do it again, the next time a difficult topic comes up.

UPDATE: Looks like some SFCC members are taking things into their own hands and organizing a Kim Young-chul event on their own. Event is supposed to be this Wednesday (May 19)  at 5pm. Email opensfcc@gmail.com if you would like to attend.