By Oh Young-jin
We want to explain to our readers three "incidents" regarding articles published on our editorial pages and share our thoughts about them.
The three, in counter-chronological order, include a contributing article which an unidentified person submitted with the mug shot of a registered sex offender; a column with a touch of plagiarism; and a piece about East-West cultural differences. We don't identify them to prevent copycatting of the first case and to protect their privacy for the second and third cases.
The bogus article was submitted to our paper's longest-running series of essays that are open with few restrictions to people of all walks of life. This triggered many inquiries and tips from readers, prompting us first to take the photo off our website and then the article after it was obvious beyond any doubt that it was a practical joke.
First, we concluded it was beyond an apology and is inexcusable so we intend to take this occasion as a bitter lesson. As a result, we will double our vetting process and, if necessary, consider resorting to law enforcement authorities if this kind of prank takes place again. This is an effort to protect our paper's integrity so as to live up to our stated mission of keeping our readers informed to the best of our ability. At the same time, we thank readers for reporting the bogus article to us and sharing their concern.
In this context, we want to share our principles with you. First and foremost, we believe that our paper is an open marketplace where people can project their ideas, make suggestions and react to news as they see under the rules of tolerance, open-mindedness and free thinking.
As with any market, those ideas are valued, accepted or discarded by an unforced consensus that forms and dissolves, with the readers being the ultimate judge. In the case of the bogus article, this market system worked, as many readers found it, alerted us and led us to remove it.
The Internet has changed our world drastically with benefits outweighing ill effects many times. Even anonymity, one of its representative features, has helped promote the freedom of speech, albeit with the side effect of producing "trolls" that we ― this paper and the readers ― have just experienced.
By no means would we succumb to the cowardly act by this prankster and change our open-door policy toward any ideas and suggestions, unless they are found to be very offensive to others by the standards of race, sex, religion and culture. The level of our determination is also reflected in our decision to maintain the daily Thoughts of the Times, despite this incident. Inviting our readers, professional or untrained, to share their thoughts with each other, it captures The Korea Times' spirit of open-mindedness at its most vibrant level. We hope that more of our readers will participate (opinions@ktimes.com).
About the article with parts plagiarized, the second case mentioned, we decided to maintain her columns because we found the parts in question were indeed taken from another person's work but it was a mistake. However, we respected her request to have it pulled off our website. We have made our decision, judging the author's integrity has been proven through the significant period during which she has written for us.
Regarding the third case, we have decided to keep it online, despite a great deal of protests, because the content fell within the limits of our editorial tolerance. In all fairness, we didn't try and suppress protests, either. Of course, the decision wasn't easy because we take our readers' reactions seriously. Both of the articles referred to cultural differences of people.
We believe that our paper is the result of a partnership between those who make it and the readers. We know we can't exist without the support of the readers, as they can always move to another seller of news. To keep you at our side is our way of survival. For that, we will continue efforts to provide better products. Once again, thank you for your support.
Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' chief editorial writer. He can be reached at foolsdie@gmail.com and foolsdie5@ktimes.com.