Ausländische Journalisten äußern ihr „Bedauern“ über die falsche Behauptung von PPP, dass Lee Jae-myung ein „geheimes Treffen“ mit der chinesischen Presse abgehalten habe

A People Power Party lawmaker claimed at a public meeting that Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung held a “secret meeting” with Chinese reporters and that the conversation was going to be relayed verbatim to the Chinese government. It turns out, however, that Lee’s supposed secret rendezvous was a roundtable with media outlets from the US, Japan and China. 

The foreign reporters who attended the meeting issued a statement on Friday expressing “deep regret” regarding the ruling party’s accusations. Critics say that in the wake of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment, the PPP is manufacturing fake news tying Lee with China while stoking anti-China sentiment. 

During a PPP floor meeting on Friday, Lee Sang-hwi, the head of the PPP’s special media committee, said, “During such grave times, Lee Jae-myung held a secret meeting with foreign reporters, including those working for Xinhua News Agency, which is highly likely to report what was discussed directly to the Chinese government.” 

“China’s Xinhua News Agency is a state-run media organization and effectively operates as a spy agency. Its reporters are therefore not unaffiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, and there are concerns that they will convey their conversation with Lee Jae-myung directly to the Chinese government,” the People Power Party lawmaker continued. 

“This secret meeting is a violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act,” Lee Sang-hwi asserted. 

The so-called secret gathering Lee Sang-hwi referred to was a meeting with foreign journalists held at a cafe in Seoul’s Mapo District on Wednesday. According to the journalists present, the meeting was actually a regular session of a “study group” started to help Japanese journalists gain a better understanding of South Korea. 

The group’s meetings had featured roundtables with political party leaders, business leaders and a broad spectrum of influential figures, including PPP lawmakers. This time, however, meeting organizers had arranged for journalists from the US, the UK, and China to join the Japanese journalists, with agreement from the Democratic Party. 

A total of 15 people attended the meeting. In addition to journalists from Xinhua News and the People’s Daily in China were reporters from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post in the US and the BBC in the UK. Yet the PPP took particular issue with the Chinese reporters, using their attendance as an excuse to attack the leader of a rival party. 

“This closed-door roundtable was an occasion for reporters and politicians to meet and exchange opinions, something that is an exceedingly normal element of newsgathering,” the reporters who attended the meeting said. 

“We express deep regret regarding the baseless allegations,” they continued in their statement. 

The reporters said that the meeting was “not something to be painted as a ‘secret meeting’ in a conspiratorial light.”

“Alleging that the meeting constituted a violation of the law not only impedes press freedoms but damages the fair reporting environment,” the journalists said. 

“All foreign journalists working in the Republic of Korea must be able to freely gather information and report it to the outside world without being discriminated against based on their nationality, race or sex,” the statement continued.