[KS] Statement re. Prof. Choi Jang-jip / Choson Ilbosa

[Frank Hoffmann]

Hi all!

Henry Em (still in Seoul) asked me post the following statement regarding
the controversity  surrounding Prof. Choi Jang-jip and the Choson Ilbosa to
the list.
Another joint statement in this respect, drafted and signed by Gi-Wook
Shin, John Duncan, James Palais, Carter Eckert, and others has already
received quite some attention in Korea.

Frank

____________BEGIN__________________

Statement on the Controversy Surrounding
Prof. Choi Jang-jip (to be released by Nov. 22)

We are deeply concerned about the continuing
controversy surrounding Professor CHOI Jang-jip's
academic writings on the Korean War, and the
possibility that the resurgence of Cold War thinking
will undermine the democratic gains that the Republic
of Korea has made in the past decade.   The
controversy sparked by the Novemer issue of Wolgan
Choson, which painted Professor Choi as being
pro-North Korea, has cast a pall over efforts to
broaden the democratic discourse in South Korea.

We welcome the November 11th ruling by the Seoul
District Court ordering Choson Ilbo to desist from
further attacks against Professor Choi Jang Jip,
Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Policy
Planning.  This court ruling is a step in the right
direction for several reasons.  On the one hand, the
ruling clearly reaffirmed the importance of the
freedom of the press, and the press's right to
subject government officials to public scrutiny.  On
the other hand, this ruling provides an important
precedent for how that public scrutiny should be
carried out.  Pointing to the fact that under South
Korean law, any South Korean citizen who gives
support to or praises enemy organizations (i.e.
North Korea) can be prosecuted for violation of
the National Security Law, the Seoul District
Court has made it clear that the press, especially
when raising ideological issues, must be fair and
accurate, and that great care should be taken
before describing any public or private figure as
being sympathetic to North Korea, or having a
leftist tendency, .

We welcome the recent ruling by the Seoul
District Court which found that the November
issue of Wolgan Choson distorted Professor
Choi's writings on the Korean War.  Quotations
were taken out of context to paint Professor Choi
as a leftist intellectual who views North Korea in a
positive light.  We feel that this kind of red-baiting
hampers academic freedom and the strengthening
of democratic institutions.  We hope that this
ruling will provide the impetus for broadening the
spectrum of academic and public discourse in the
Republic of Korea, moving beyond the kind of
Cold War logic which brought about so much
suffering and pain to the Korean people.

_______________END_______________


Press Conference:  "Joint-Statement on
Academic Freedom in Korea"

243 Royce Hall, UCLA  1:00 PM.
October 30,1998.

Read by:
Professor John Duncan (EALC, UCLA)
Professor Gi-Wook Shin (Sociology, UCLA)


Joint-Statement on Korean Academic Freedom

We, scholars of Korean studies outside Korea,
are deeply concerned.... [rest of text deleted - see
earlier message for the complete text]

Signed by:

Name           Position         University

1)   Robert Buswell, Director, Center for
     Korean Studies, Professor and Chairman,
     Dept. of East Asian Languages and
     Cultures, UCLA
2)   Chungmoo Choi, Professor of East Asian
     Studies, Dept. of East Asian Languages
     & Literature, University of California,
     Irvine
3)   Kyeong-Hee Choi, Professor of Korean
     Literature, Department of East Asian
     Languages and Civilizations, University
     of Chicago
4)   Donald N, Clark, Professor of History
     Trinity University
5)   Alain Delissen, Professor, Ecole des
     Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales,
     Centre Coree
6)   John Duncan, Professor of Korean History,
     Dept. of East Asian Languages and Cultures/
     Dept. of History, UCLA
7)   Carter J, Eckert, Professor of Korean
     History, Director, Korean Institute.
     Harvard University.
8)   Ross King, Professor of Korean, University
     of British Columbia
9)   B.C. Koh, Professor of Political Science
     University of Illinois at Chicago.
10)  Hong Yung Lee, Professor of Political
     Science Director, Center for Korean
     Studies, University of California,
     Berkeley.
11)  John Lie, Professor of Sociology,
     Dept. of Sociology, University of Illinois
     at Urbana-Champaign,
12)  David R. McCann, Professor of Korean
     Literature, Harvard University.
13)  Dennis McNamara, Professor of Sociology
     Georgetown University
14)  Hyung Il Pai, Professor of History and
     East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies.
     University of California, Santa Barbara
15)  James Palais, Professor of History
     University of Washington.


_______________________
Henry H. Em
Assistant Professor,
UCLA - Dept. of East Asian Lang. & Cultures

mailing address until Dec. 31, 1998:
c/o Asiatic Research Center, Room 303
Korea University,
Anam-dong, Sungbuk-gu,
Seoul 136-701,  Korea

Tel:  82(country code)-2-780-6185 (ho)
Fax:  82-2-780-7014
Tel:  82-2-923-8702,  Ext. #126  (of)




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