Korean Undergraduates Distrust for Business Reporting

This may not be indicative of Koreans - not even young Koreans - in general, but interesting never theless.

According to a survey conducted by the October 2008 issue of the Yonsei Annals - a Yonsei University (pictured) student publication - 63 per cent of Yonsei undergraduates surveyed said they do not trust the press when it comes to business stories.

Respondents said they do not think that all irregularities and allegations against Korean enterprises have been fully reported in the media.

Agreeing, Lee Sang-ho, an MBC reporter who is known for his exposes of Samsung in what became known as the "Samsung X-file reports", said that negative news about large Korean enterprises "are not being reported as they should be."

Lee added: "In the early stage of the Taean oil spill accident, even the fact that one of the ships which caused the collision belonged to Samsung Heavy Industries could not be reported."

Another reporter who was not named argued that the "media cannot be fully free from enterprises' influence, because most of the press' earnings depend on their advertisements. However ... reporters try to be as objective as they can."

But this unnamed reporter from Korea Economic Daily also pointed out that "since business figures generally have a sense of duty for Korea's economic stability and growth, it is hard just to criticize them. Criticizing is easy, but reporters consider the broader perspective, encouraging businesses to revitalize the economy as well as objectively showing the facts to the people."