The Press

This chapter examines how partisanship and progressive–conservative divisions have influenced the press and the relationship between the press and political parties in Korea since the 1990s. To better understand this dynamic, it identifies the major features of the Korean press and examines the way in which the legacy of authoritarianism has affected political reporting and the press–party relationship. It argues that the interplay between the press and the political parties has continued to be marked by elements of a parallel relationship between the two—the major features of the Korean press mirror the characteristics of the political parties. It also argues that political parties and the press have been the major contributors to the current conservative–progressive divisions in Korea, and this has been worsened because the country’s press has been continuously subjugated to its own political and ideological commitments.