Yoon Seok-yeol’s press conference was a ‘spokesman’s press conference’ and the president became a ‘supporting actor’
The press conference marking the second anniversary of President Yoon Seok-yeol’s inauguration degenerated into a ‘spokesperson press conference’ and the president became a supporting actor.
Unlike the American-style presidential press conference, where the president, who is familiar with the reporters residing near the president, appoints him directly to answer questions at the press conference, President Yoon's press conference is held directly by Spokesperson Kim Soo-kyung, who stands on the lower podium with the president in front and has a photo of the reporters on the podium. While watching, I directly nominated the questioner and it became a press conference for the spokesperson.
It appears that the press conference has degenerated into a position where the spokesperson selects and nominates a reporter and the president gives a ‘detailed answer from a working-level person’ in the answer.The press conference was held for 75 minutes in the order of politics, diplomacy/security, economy, and society by Spokesperson Kim standing at the front with a podium, and 20 reporters were selected out of the 145 reporters in attendance.
At the press conference on the 2nd anniversary of the inauguration on the 9th, reporters from the pool (joint reporting) group, including the central daily newspapers, were assigned to the front seats from the spokesperson's office, reporters from media outlets not belonging to the pool were assigned to the back seats, and Spokesperson Kim, who occupied the podium at the front, asked questions. Reporters were nominated: 4 from economic magazines (Maeil Business Newspaper, Korea Economic Daily, Seoul Economic Daily, Money Today), 4 general daily newspapers (Chosun Ilbo, Hankook Ilbo, Hankyoreh, JoongAng Ilbo), and 4 foreign journalists (Reuters, AFP, Nippon Keizai Shimbun) ·BBC), 2 news agencies (Newsis, Yonhap News), 2 terrestrial broadcasters (SBS, KBS), general programming (TV Chosun), news channel (Yonhap News TV), local newspaper (Yeongnam Ilbo), internet newspaper (iNews) 24) Each person was nominated by hand and asked to speak a question.
Spokesperson Kim stood in front of an independent podium, which the U.S. and other Western countries consider taboo, and looked at a list of pictures on the front podium next to the president, nominated and spoke in person, staging it as a 'spokesman's press conference'. Video relay was allowed to raise the status by showing it in the lower position.
Regarding the ‘top list’ on the 10th, the President’s Office stated, “The list prepared to point out foreign reporters by name caused misunderstandings,” and that “the spokesperson does not know the faces and names of foreign reporters,” and “deviated from the basic responsibility of the spokesperson.”
The President's Office's explanation that Daedongryeong and the spokesperson held a press conference without knowing the names and faces of major foreign reporters stationed in Korea appears to have revealed the president's tendency to not personally read major reports from foreign and domestic media.
An official from the President’s Office explained, “We need to point out the people who raised their hands, but we don’t know their names. “So, it’s a list with their pictures, agency, and names,” he said. “Because I couldn’t tell their faces apart, I deliberately made the picture bigger.” “I had to look at the name, but I couldn’t say ‘You’, so I had a list of cars for reference.” “A BBC reporter was sitting in the back row, and as the spokesperson was looking at all the people raising their hands, he got up and raised his hand. “If they do something like that, I have to point them out, but I don’t know who they are, so I took that list with that in mind,” he told ‘Media Today’.
On the 6th, an official from the President's Office said of the announcement of a '9-day press conference', saying, "We plan to further increase communication with the people's livelihood, such as on-site visits, including expanding contacts with the media."
Regarding the presidential press conference, the President's Office answers questions with reporters in the briefing room on the first floor and announces it live to the nation. An official said, "The briefing room was organized with the intention of focusing only on answering questions as much as possible," and "President Yoon will interact with the media." “We said we will expand communication points, and our intention is to directly explain in detail what the public wants to know or misunderstand,” he said.
Most media outlets reported, “Questions and answers will be asked freely on an unlimited number of topics, with no restrictions on topics. The Q&A will last about an hour, excluding public messages.”
At press conferences, it is common for the speaker to point out a reporter who has raised his or her hand, first reveal their agency and name, and state the content of the question, and then the speaker acknowledges and then answers.
The most common way to direct a presidential press conference is in 1988, when President Roh Tae-woo drew a drawing of the layout of reporters' seats and the order of questions, and the KBS broadcast cameraman held the camera while looking at the layout in front of him.
At the time, the Blue House received advance questions from reporters, took turns preparing answers, and adapted them into ‘democratic media’ by directing the president to read them on screen.
Han Dong-hoon, chairman of the National Power Emergency Committee, showed a situation of ‘pre-selection of questioners and prior request for question content’ during a Q&A session with reporters during his inauguration ceremony on December 26 last year.
At the time, the media reported, “Party officials first limited the number of questions to three or four, then received applicants and asked them the gist of the questions.”
See <Han Dong-hoon imitating Roh Tae-woo’s scripted conference, ‘With the support of the people as a powerful leader, the political party becomes the president’s executioner’, December 27, 2023>