Defamation suits, journalist dismissals and program cuts: the unpopular government of South Korea's Conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, elected in 2022, is returning to past practices of censorship and media control, which it justifies as fighting "fake news." On Friday, December 1, Yoon rejected a bill introduced by the Democratic opposition – which has a majority in the National Assembly – designed to limit state intervention in public broadcasting. "There is repression at every level. Freedom of expression is under serious threat in South Korea," worried Choo Chin-woo, a well-known investigative journalist.

Choo's investigations, once carried out in close collaboration with Yoon when he was a prosecutor and claimed political neutrality, led to the imprisonment of Conservative presidents Lee Myung-bak (2008-2013) and Park Geun-hye (2013-2017). for corruption and abuse of power. Yet his daily political program, "Choo Chin-woo Live," was suddenly removed from the schedule of the public broadcasting group, KBS.

This decision was announced as soon as the new KBS president, Park Min, took office on November 14. He also sacked Lee So-jung, the presenter of KBS News 9, and replaced the team behind the program The Live, as well as 70 executives. This tougher stance seems to be in line with the wishes of the People's Power Party (the President's party). Kim Seo-joong, professor of broadcasting at Sungkonghoe University and a former member of the KBS board of directors, confirmed, "The replacement of presenters considered problematic can only have been decided under external pressure."

The forceful takeover of KBS reflects a drift that contrasts with Yoon's early days as president: He was the first South Korean leader to allow journalists to ask him questions when he arrived at his office in the morning. But this openness didn't last. During Yoon's participation in a conference in New York in September 2022, the public broadcaster MBC was accused of seeking to weaken the alliance with Washington after broadcasting a recording in which the president appeared to insult elected members of the US Congress. The president's office denied any malicious remarks. Two months later, Yoon denied MBC journalists access to the presidential plane for a trip to Southeast Asia.

The crackdown doesn't stop there. In fact, the government is considering a draft agency to combat disinformation, which could require the shutdown of any media outlet, including YouTube channels. This worries media personalities such as incisive political commentator Kim Ou-joon, who turned to the video-streaming site in 2022, after losing his popular program on TBS, Seoul's mayoral-funded radio station, also in Conservative hands.

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