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South Korea beef protests
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Posted June 12, 2008
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Location
Seoul, South Korea
Seoul, South Korea
Assignment
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Mad Cow Disease Terrorism in Korea
<MBC - the Mastermind of Mad Cow Disease Terrorism in Korea> Cho Gap-je, the former president of Chosun Monthly, named the MBC broadcasting company as the instigator of yesterday's largest-ever protest in Seoul, in a statement on his website. How the MBC broadcasting company masterminded the entire mad cow disease panic in Korea will be explained in a series of Korean articles translated into English. .............. Cho Gap-je to MBC : "Listen, MBC. You will Not Get Away with This!" Translated from an article on the Joongang Daily News website (source of the original Korean article : http://news.joins.com/article/3178237.html?ctg=1000) On the 11th political commentator and investigative reporter Cho Gap-je unleashed his anger about the previous day's protest via a statement on his website(http://www.chogabje.com). In the statement, Cho claimed "the instigating force that drove 60,000 or more people into the streets yesterday was the inflammatory report on mad cow disease that MBC aired at the end of April." He went on to contend, "While protesters of 21 years ago were driven by anger grounded in truth, the crowds yesterday were roused by misleading information from those whose aim was to cause a public riot." "The candlelight protesters that I saw yesterday on the streets of Seoul were not there to uphold a particular belief or express a genuine fear," he said, "They were there, just to be ‘in the crowd,' mingling and waving picket signs, chanting curses and hatred.....There were children who joined without even knowing why, and people who came purely out of superstitious beliefs about mad cow disease. Many were there simply because they had other complaints against the government and society" He went on to stress, "It was not the same as 21 years ago, when there was an urgency in the air. Yesterday, the atmosphere was convivial and social, leisurely and expansive in nature." Cho pointed out that, "You cannot make history with lies. The freedom of speech we have today is what reporters from Chosun, Dong-ah, Joongang, and Hanguk newspapers fought hard to defend. But MBC is taking advantage of this hard-earned freedom of speech, and is abusing that freedom to destroy the truth. By doing this, they voluntarily took a downfall, lowering themselves to the role of riot instigators, instead of reporters." "Does MBC think they can get away with this? Will they conduct business as usual with names like MBC reporters and MBC PDs on their business card?" asked Cho. "Wait and you shall see." On the 10th, the day before the protest, Mr Cho Gap-je was at Seoul Plaza with people from several conservative political groups including The New Right as part of ‘Safeguarding Legal Order - the People's Campaign to Demand Approval of the FTA.' During the campaign, Cho addressed anti-US beef protesters who were on the other side, "These idiots and fools must be feeling ashamed of having been used by left-wing rabble-rousers to further their own aims; they are staring at us." He then denounced them, to great controversy later, by saying "Those who brought children to the candlelight protests are Abusers of Children's Soul, and deserve to be condemned for teaching them deception."
- TAGS:
- seoul,
- south_korea,
- beef,
- protest
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