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Seeking the truthHow the Jemin Ilbo uncovered the real story of the island's massacre |
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| ▲ Yang Jo Hoon, head investigative reporter for the Jemin Ilbo from '88-'99, talks of his mission to extract an apology from the president of South Korea for the government’s role in the April 3 Massacre. Photo by Darryl Coote |
The year was 1988, South Korea was finally free of almost 30 years of military dictatorship, Roh Tae Woo was elected president, and citizens were rapidly adjusting to their newly-earned freedom and fledgling democracy.
Here on Jeju a group of young, ambitious journalists for the Jemin Ilbo, the only daily newspaper on the island at the time, decided to use their new freedoms to achieve a goal that only two years prior would have been unthinkable.
Before democratization, public discussion about the April 3 Massacre was ruthlessly suppressed. As fear of repercussions still hung over the Jeju people, the writers of the Jemin Ilbo endeavored not only to uncover the truth of those 7 horrific years between 1947 and 1954, but also to extract an official apology from the president of South Korea for the government’s role in the deaths of an estimated 30,000 people.
Yang Jo Hoon, lead April 3 Massacre investigative reporter for the Jemin Ilbo from 1988 to 1999, invited The Jeju Weekly into his home to talk about this massive undertaking.
“At that time, I was not sure if we could change anything, but the investigation team was formed by the enthusiasm of young journalists,” said Yang.
Even before the first article was written there was discord within the newsroom. This arose through fear of backlash from the public, who thought this project would endanger the stability of society and from fear of legal action that could be brought against the newspaper.
“We had to vow that if anything wrong were to happen, we would take on all charges for it,” Yang said. “Those who managed the press, like the CEO and other staff, worried that the press might face a huge danger because of this investigation.”
It was hard going at first said Yang, citing that the public worried whether the newspaper was capable of effectively uncovering truths that had been buried under 35 years of silence.
“People first doubted this project. It was a really difficult job,” he said.
Before their investigations the massacre was referred to as a communist revolt, but “[we] found out and reported that the U.S. military and the police distorted the facts about 4.3 … We started to prove that it was wrong and people began to trust us. We earned people’s trust by constantly finding out facts about the 4.3 incident.”
Revealing this information did not come without consequences. While the Jemin Ilbo was transforming the public’s view of the massacre, those who suffered at the hands of “guerrillas” [Yang’s word], those for whom the former image of the massacre reflected their pain, were upset that the perpetrators of their suffering were being cast in a new light. “[They] thought 4.3 was the rebels’ fault, while our investigation team proved that it was wrong. They showed dissatisfaction with our reports … In addition, the police and the military also showed dissatisfaction because they also considered the incident as a communist revolt. At that time, it was really serious.”
The conflicting beliefs put the paper in a precarious position. They had to be careful with their word choice, selective about the information they presented and be as objective as possible.
“I told my journalists that we should not have prejudice. Our job was to reveal the facts about 4.3. Then 4.3 will gradually be evaluated in a right way. What I emphasized was that we should not hurry, but we rather should take sufficient amount of time in revealing the facts, like a marathon runner,” said Yang.
Yang continued that he knew to acquire accurate information would take much time. As lead investigative reporter for the first newspaper to present this contentious information to the public, he knew that if they let slip incorrect facts into their work, it would cause “fatal consequences” for the project. Yang said he meticulously double-checked every fact, taking nothing for granted no matter how trustworthy the source: “For example,” said Yang, “we got U.S. documents and I compared that to the witnesses’ testimony. There were some differences, and I got extremely careful in finding facts because I was not a scholar, but a journalist. All the misleading and confusing information should be double and triple-checked.”
The goal was to write 500 articles which Yang thought would take 5 to 6 years, but he was wrong. It would take almost 10 years. In 1999, with only 44 articles remaining, the project was terminated. “Our project was eventually not completed. The intelligence agency put pressure on the manager of our press. The original manager was changed to a new one. I was dismissed from the newspaper company in 1999,” Yang said.
However his dismissal was of little concern because immediately after his dismissal he worked with an NGO that helped to bring about the 4.3 Special Law of 2000. The law, sponsored by the government, established a fact-finding investigation which would eventually prove to the administration their responsibilities in relation to the events.
In 2003 President Noh Moo Hyun came to Jeju Island and officially apologized.
“[O]ur [original] purpose was to make the government apologize to Jeju,” Yang said.
Yang is currently in the process of writing 120 articles detailing the specifics of how they conducted their research and the trials and tribulations they faced. The articles are printed twice weekly in Jemin Ilbo.
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| ▲ Photo by Darryl Coote |
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 Darryl Coote의 다른기사 보기 |
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Title:The jeju Weekly(제주위클리) | Mail to editor@jejuweekly.net | Phone: +82-64-724-7776 Fax: +82-64-724-7796
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Copyright ⓒ 2009 All materials on this site are protected under the Korean Copyright Law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published
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