Korean Paper Says Now-Jailed Radio Reporter Broadcast a Lie

The Korea Times, whose suit against Los Angeles journalist Richard Choi led to his recent arrest in Seoul, said Choi intentionally broadcast a radio story that “caused irreparable damage” to the newspaper’s parent company.

Choi, a news anchor for Radio Korea, KBLA-AM (1580), was arrested Dec. 19 after he broadcast a story to Los Angeles about how South Korean media companies have been hurt by that country’s recent economic crisis.

Choi’s report mentioned a rumored merger between the Korea Times’ parent firm and Hyundai, which the newspaper company has denied.

After the broadcast, Choi was charged with malicious slander under a South Korean criminal defamation law that prohibits reporting rumors that could financially hurt a company.

Los Angeles community leaders have protested Choi’s arrest as a violation of freedom of speech and civil liberties.

The Korea Times is an English-language daily that circulates throughout South Korea; its Los Angeles edition is a bilingual monthly. The parent company operates Los Angeles radio station KFOX-FM (93.5), also known as FM Seoul, a competitor of Radio Korea. In addition, the firm publishes Seoul and Los Angeles editions of Hankook Ilbo, a Korean-language daily.

“Our action has been taken out of self-defense aimed at protecting the very survival of the Korea Times from an immediate and clear threat to the reputation and credibility of our company,” the newspaper said in a statement issued from its Seoul headquarters. “We believe that what Choi and his company broadcast . . . was nothing but a total fabrication designed to eliminate a rival company’s competition.”

David Woo, an editor at the newspaper’s Los Angeles edition, said the company fears that Choi’s broadcast could spark panic in South Korea’s current economic climate.

“There are so many rumors going around right now,” Woo said. “This could really hurt the paper. It could lose its advertisers and subscribers--everything.”

Radio Korea officials said Choi did not intend any harm with his broadcast, and added that they were planning to issue a retraction when he was arrested. That retraction was broadcast four times Dec. 26, according to the station.

“There is no evidence of any malice,” said Los Angeles attorney Angela Oh, an activist in the Korean American community whom Radio Korea asked to help mediate. “We need to get beyond this and focus on the real issue: An American journalist who was out of the country doing a report should not face imprisonment for a mistake,” she said.

Choi’s arrest has attracted the attention of national journalism watchdog groups in the U. S.

The New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists sent a sternly worded letter of protest late Monday to the South Korean government, asking for Choi’s swift release.

“We believe that the jailing of a reporter for doing his job undermines the democratic process in South Korea,” wrote A. Lin Neumann, the committee’s Asia program coordinator. “It seems particularly ironic that this case concerns a newspaper company.”

On Tuesday, African American and Korean American leaders in Southern California issued a plea to President Clinton for help in securing Choi’s release.

The journalist’s supporters said that if he is not released, they want the United States to delay the billions of dollars in loans that Clinton has promised to help South Korea’s economy.

A candlelight vigil for Choi is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in front of Radio Korea’s offices at 626 S. Kingsley Drive in Koreatown.