Korean Journalists Seek Constitutional Review for 50-Year-Old Mass Dismissals

For half a century, the ghosts of mass dismissals have haunted the halls of Korean journalism. Today, a group of veteran journalists, once silenced for daring to uphold press freedom, are taking their fight to the Constitutional Court, seeking to rectify a historical wrong that continues to cast a shadow over our nation's democratic narrative.

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For 51 years, journalists from the Dong-A and Chosun Free Press Defense Committees have had to live seeing the Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo shamelessly reigning in the middle of Gwanghwamun Street in Seoul without a single apology.

The 1975 dismissals of over a hundred journalists from Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo were not mere corporate retrenchments; they were acts of state-sponsored suppression orchestrated under the authoritarian Yushin regime. The journalists were targeted for their activism in demanding press freedom, a courageous stand against the pervasive censorship and control exerted by the government and intelligence agencies.

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The essence of the Dong-a 투위 case is that under the Yushin regime, political power, through the president's directive and the execution of the KCIA, systematically suppressed press freedom, and the judiciary failed to provide effective relief, instead endorsing the results of that suppression.

Despite the 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' acknowledging these events as a significant human rights violation, the 1978 Supreme Court ruling failed to address the core issue: the state's illicit influence and the subsequent violation of fundamental rights. Instead, the court's decision prioritized the newspapers' claims of financial hardship, effectively rubber-stamping the regime's suppression of dissent and undermining the very principles of a free press.

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The Supreme Court ruling ignored the KCIA's intervention in advertising suppression and daily reporting controls, focusing only on the inevitability of workforce reduction due to management difficulties and the justification of disciplinary action for violating internal order.

Now, these aging journalists, many of whom faced further persecution and struggled to find employment, are pinning their hopes on the Constitutional Court. Their appeal is not just about personal vindication; it is a crucial battle for historical truth and the integrity of press freedom in South Korea. It is a fight to ensure that the sacrifices made by those who stood against tyranny are not forgotten and that the narrative of our democratic progress is built on a foundation of justice, not on the convenient omissions of the past.

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The mass dismissal of journalists from Dong-A and Chosun in 1975, which was justified by the dictatorship-era Supreme Court ruling that betrayed history and violated the constitution, must be corrected.