Roh Moo-hyun and the Korean Media

For most major South Korean newspapers, the election of President Roh Moo-hyun in 2002 was said to be a "tragedy". Roh had long been known for his unfriendly relations with Seoul's papers, especially the three largest dailies which account for two-thirds of the nation's total market.

According to B.J. Lee in 2003, all three papers were conservative, whereas Roh was a lifelong liberal and reformist.

In particular, Chosun, the largest and most conservative daily, had been at odds with Roh for years. Roh once even sued its sister magazine for libel, and refused to be interviewed by the paper prior to his election.

Roh was said to be a big fan of online newspapers and to a lesser degree, television news. Internet papers were major supporters of Roh's campaign. Their readers were mainly young progressive Koreans who sympathized with Roh's idealistic platforms.

Hence, at one time, Ohmynews - an online paper run by a former dissident journalist - was the only domestic news outlet that had been able to interview Roh since his election. And when Roh was being ignored by mainstream newspapers during the presidential primary, the internet paper devoted much space to his campaign and broadcast his speeches live on the internet.

As Lee added: "An eloquent speaker, Mr. Roh also likes to be on television discussing or debating with others. As television-friendly former US president John Kennedy defeated newspaper-oriented Richard Nixon in the 1960 US presidential election, television star Roh beat opposition leader Lee Hoi-chang - who was mainly backed by older newspaper readers ..."

"But the president runs the risk of turning into a simple populist by virtue of favoring the Internet and television media. Already, critics accuse him of bypassing media scrutiny to reach audiences directly. As president, maybe it is time for him to embrace critical print media as well."