Investigative journalism and the people’s right to know : Editorial : Home

[Editorial] Investigative journalism and the people’s right to know : Editorial : Home: "A few days ago, the Supreme Court confirmed a guilty ruling against former and current journalists prosecuted for reporting on the “Agency for National Security Planning X-file.” This file contained transcripts of a conversation that took place before the 1997 presidential election between then-Samsung Group secretarial office head Lee Hak-soo and JoongAng Ilbo Chairman Hong Seok-hyun discussing the delivery of money to a particular candidate and around ten prosecution offices. A major controversy erupted in 2005 when it was reported in the press that the ANSP (current National Intelligence Service) recorded this content illegally, but the people who actually plotting government-business collusion and the buying off of prosecutors, as well as the prosecutors who received the “gifts,” had no charges pressed against them. It is the height of absurdity that it was the journalists who divulged this information who were found guilty of violating the Telecommunications Security Protection Act."