“Female journalists hired for their looks,” Man who fires away “headcanon” is the new chief of the Communications Standards Commission

Ryu Hee-lim (pictured), who took the post of the Korea Communications Standards Commission chair on September 8, wrote in a book he published, “There are more companies that hire not only TV reporters, but even newspaper reporters based on their looks rather than their writing skills.” He continued and argued, “Take a good look at female journalists appearing in broadcasting and newspapers. I am very concerned that lookism seems to be affecting even the recruitment of reporters, where the quality of a journalist is more important.”

In How to Survive in an Age of Fake News (Gloseum), which Ryu published in 2018, he shared his definition of fake news and problems in the Korean press along with specific cases. In the book, Ryu argued that one of the ten chronic problems in Korean media was provocative news intended to draw sexual interest.

Ryu said, “Recently, female journalists are notably more active in major institutions, such as Cheongwadae, the National Assembly, the courts and the Prosecution Service, which is desirable in terms of gender equality.” Yet at the same time, he also said, “But I am very concerned, because just like the tests to hire TV anchorwomen or weather reporters, which have already been criticized as a beauty pageant, lookism seems to be affecting even the recruitment of reporters, where the quality of a journalist is more important.”

He also argued that the Korean press was influenced by a colonialist perspective of history and tended to publish self-tormenting reports. Ryu wrote, “Political forces that newly seize power usually dig up the corruption and mistakes of the previous government,” and argued, “Such chronic bad practices of the Korean press are by no means irrelevant with a kind of self-accusation that ‘Joseon people are just not capable,’ deeply planted in our consciousness due to the influence of the colonialist perspective of history, which distorted and disparaged our history, to help Japan rule over Joseon during its occupation.”

Ryu defined news that created excessive fear as fake economic news and mentioned reports on the unemployment of young people as an example. He wrote, “South Korean media outlets are experts in creating fear.” He argued, “Although the employment rate may be the worst ever, companies are bound to notice and hire talented people who have worked to develop their abilities,” and wrote, “Even if thousands of people apply for a single opening, they (young people) should have the guts and confidence to think that ‘I’m the only one (for the job).’”

As for the press coverage of the Sewol ferry accident, Ryu argued that the press criticized the government recklessly, aggravating the stress suffered by the people. He described, “The families of the dead and missing and the opposition party at the time argued that blooming children were sacrificed because the government did not provide proper rescue measures, and the media was also busy digging up problems. Whether the president personally received a report on the day of the accident became a political issue, triggering all kinds of groundless rumors.” He then argued, “All these were factors that gave ordinary citizens stress pressing the question, ‘What was the government doing?’”

Kim Seo-joong, a professor in the Division of Media & Contents at Sungkonghoe University who served as a non-permanent member of the special committee for the investigation of the April 16 Sewol disaster said, “The problem of the press at the time of the Sewol disaster was that they failed to properly criticize the government’s response and actually defended the government, while the government made it difficult to approach the truth.” He added, “Arguing that the people were stressed because of too much coverage by the press just shows he lacks understanding of problems in media.”