Freedom of the press in South Korea

South Korea is considered to have freedom of the press, but it is subject to several pressures. It has improved since South Korea transitioned to democracy in the late 20th century, but declined slightly in the 2010s. Freedom House Freedom of the Press has classified South Korean press as free from 2002 to 2010, and as partly free since 2011.

The Western concept of freedom of the press was introduced to Korea following World War II by the United States Army Military Government in Korea, though some communist press outlets were censored. The Syngman Rhee administration that followed afforded considerable press freedom, but this was limited in its later tenure by the National Security Act. The Rhee administration closed one newspaper critical of it, the Kyunghyang Shinmun. After Rhee was replaced in 1960 by the short-lived Chang Myon administration, the South Korean press was freed from most restrictions, but Chang was soon replaced in a military coup led by General Park Chung Hee in 1961. Park was highly critical of the press' ability to criticize the government, and Youm and Salwen (1990) note that he "invoked a series of emergency decrees to muzzle the press".

Following Park's assassination, as happened before, the Korean press regained some freedoms during the early stages of the new administration, until another military dictator, Chun Doo Hwan, reimposed military control, with what Youm and Salwen described as "an unprecedented 'purification campaign' against the press". Media were regulated through the Basic Press Act of 1980. That law was replaced in 1989 by the more liberal Act on Registration of Periodicals and the Broadcast Act by the Roh Tae-Woo administration, which is widely credited with transitioning South Korea to a democratic society respecting freedom of press, with Korean media becoming much freer from state control. A landmark case occurred in 1988 when a military court ruled against military officers accused of assaulting a newspaper editor who published a negative story about the Korean military.

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