[HanCinema's Film Review] "Seven Years-Journalism without Journalist"

In 2008, shortly following the election of Lee Myung-bak, the new President appointed a new head for the MBC television network, which is a publically owned broadcast corporation. Actions by various persons connected to Lee Myung-bak soon started a marked shift in MBC's editorial tone- one that was decidedly less critical of government actions and scandals in general. Through time and tide, journalists became more critical of these actions, eventually culminating in a general strike. "Seven Years-Journalism without Journalist" uses on-site footage of these protests over the years to explain these events.

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"Seven Years-Journalism without Journalist" is the kind of movie that in retrospect is actually pretty terrifying. We have all this old footage of journalists expressing serious concerns that Lee Myung-bak's cronyism is designed to prevent the press from holding him accountable for any of his more questionable actions and this is exactly what happens. Park Geun-hye's election night victory is especially chilling in this context, reminded as we are that the woman we now know to be a doddering moron won by a very slim margin in part thanks to a sympathetic media that prematurely exonerated her campaign of collusion with the National Intelligence Service.

In explaining how all this happened "Seven Years-Journalism without Journalist" concerns itself principally with inside baseball- that is, the editorial process which most people never see but which is essential to deciding what news gets covered. In short, directives issued from on high can put individual journalists in a bad position when it comes to the stories they can play on-air. If mere bureaucratic bullying isn't enough to force the issue, termination of employment contracts via dubious legal methods can. That is what ultimately provokes the general strike.

...Yes, that's right, reporters going on a general strike. From my own cultural context, this is honest to goodness one of the most alien things I've ever seen in South Korean culture. I'm not even sure American journalists would understand the concept of their going on a general strike. Aren't those for working class people after all? But then we're talking about people who think Donald Trump saying mean things about them is a threat to democracy.

No, what "Seven Years-Journalism without Journalist" documents is something far more pernicious- the attempt by conservative forces to use backroom deals and obfuscating paperwork to transform the news media into mere toadies without anyone noticing. Thankfully proper activism has prevented that awful reality from coming true in South Korea. Even if some journalists lost their jobs, and had to go on to other things, they made sure to go down swinging.

But if there's any larger lesson to take away from "Seven Years-Journalism without Journalist" it's this. Direct propaganda isn't what we need to worry about. It's what the government and the mainstream media doesn't tell us that's the real cause for concern. Again and again I'm shocked at what I learn in these local Korean documentaries that barely gets covered in local press, let alone internationally. For that, there's only one solution. Keep fighting, and stay vigilant, much as the MBC reporters did.

Review by William Schwartz

"Seven Years-Journalism without Journalist" is directed by Kim Jinhyuk.