- This practice reveals ubiquitous cronyism and nepotism in the decision-
making process and hinders the ideal of open and fair government. The conflict
between power and responsibility not only creates moral hazards in the organiza-
tion of government but also sabotages constitutional mechanisms of checks and
balances.
Third, the tendency to criminalize moral or administrative sanctions also
enables law-enforcement agencies to abuse their powers. For example, too strict a
regulation of political funding increases the likelihood of criminal violation,
allowing the prosecutor’s office a wide margin of arbitrary indictment. In addition,
the hypocritical duplicity innate in Korean culture tends to produce overly idealis-
tic law, which in turn renders strict enforcement difficult. For example, in the
former president Lee’s term, former minister of justice Lee Kwi-nam, the then
prosecutor-general Han Sang-dae, and several Supreme Court justices were forced
to apologize for their false residence registrations, which still remains a criminal
offence.
62
Politicization of the media
Free and fair media is one of the mainstays of a constitutional democracy. If the
media market is politicized and commercialized in an unbalanced way,
the guarantee of a free flow of ideas and opinions, together with the democratic
process, may be distorted. Many Korean people are proud of the level of
democratization achieved since 1987 , but during the Lee Myong-bak administra-
tion ( 2008 – 13 ) this pride waned significantly. Heads of major media like YTN, a
public news agency, and of KBS and MBC, two major public broadcasting
companies, were appointed by those with political connections to the president
or his political inner circle. Choi Si-joong, a senior political aide, worked for
Mr Lee in the period of the election, and was appointed, and remained around
four years until early 2012 , chairperson of the Korea Communications Commission,
entrusted with regulatory power over the media market. His most controversial
action was the change of media laws governing newspapers and broadcasting in the
direction of permitting cross-ownership between press companies and broadcasting
companies. One serious problem in this regard is that many of the press companies
acquiring licenses for comprehensive program services are those which control
more than 60 percent of the press market and are well known for their conservative
policies.
(^62) See Rahn Kim, “Aide to Lee Sang-deuk arrested for bribery,”Korea Times, December 11 ,
2011 , available at http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/include/print.asp?newsIdx= 100569 ;
Min-uck Chung, “Assembly speaker quits over vote buying,”Korea Times, February 9 ,
2011 , available at http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/include/print.asp?newsIdx= 104489 ;
Sung-jin Yang, “Chief of telecom regulator resigns,”Korea Herald, January 27 , 2011 ,
available atwww.koreaherald.com/pop/NewsPrint.jsp?newsMLId= 20120127001130.