In South Korea, nostalgia for journalist’s stabbing stokes media freedom fears: ‘I felt my hair stand on end’

Hwang Sang-moo, senior presidential secretary for civil and social affairs, made the suggestion last week while dining with journalists assigned to the presidential press corp.

But Yoon’s presidential office insists his government “thoroughly” respects press freedom and the news media’s role in a functioning democracy, asserting that it never uses pressure tactics against any journalists.

“You MBC, listen to me carefully”, Hwang said on Thursday last week in reference to one of South Korea’s leading broadcasters, which has been at odds with the government due to “biased” and antagonistic news reporting.

The presidential secretary reminisced about how a journalist who wrote a magazine column in 1988 criticising the country’s lingering militarist culture was stabbed by three military intelligence agents in what became known as the “sashimi knife terror attack”.

Hwang said the victim, Oh Hong-keun, brought trouble down upon himself by writing articles that were critical of the government, hinting that journalists who criticise Yoon’s government could meet the same fate.

Oh, then city desk editor of the now-defunct JoongAng Economic Daily, was stabbed twice in the thigh near his home on his way to work one morning.

His assailants, and a brigade general who ordered the attack, were subsequently arrested – but received little more than a slap on the wrist from a military court under Roh Tae-woo, the general-turned-president.

In the face of mounting protests from the media, Hwang, a former reporter with state-funded KBS, on Saturday apologised for his insensitivity. He promised to be more careful with his words and actions in future and behave more responsibly as a senior presidential aide.

But journalists called Hwang’s “outrageous