"And the Pen Remained Silent": Evolution of Freedom of Press in South Korea Through the Narration of the "Gwangju Democratic Movement"

“I want to become a journalist!” This simple statement, that encloses the dreams of many young students on the school desks, hides a multitude of ambition. How does one become a journalist? Many are the paths one can take to pursue a journalistic career, but only one is the fundamental premise: the desire to pursue the truth. Journalism is an ever-constant component in our lives, and we rely upon it to get a wider knowledge of the world; it can be used as a channel of ideas and ideals, or as an instrument to give voices to people who are used to being silenced. Journalism has the potential of truly producing impactful changes for our societies, on the condition of being sustained by the mission of enlightening those who benefit from it. The main topic of this dissertation revolves around an episode of irresponsible – and dangerous – appropriation of journalism: the “Gwangju Massacre” is a black mark in contemporary history that stemmed from the repressive ambition of the authoritarian military regime in the South Korea of the 1980, when freedom of press, as intended today, was still a foreign concept. By retracing the advent of journalism in South Korea, from its primordial forms to the foundation of the first newspaper agencies, this dissertation will enlighten on the progresses South Korean journalism conquered through its eras, under different rules, until present day. At the center of this historical excursus, the Gwangju Uprising will be discussed as a landmark not only in the struggle for Democratization in South Korea, strictly related to the ideal of freedom of press, but also in the evolution of free journalism, no longer a slave of the governmental agenda but an instrument of revendication for the entire Korean population, representation of its struggles in the face of oppression. Newspapers of the past, under the regimes’ manipulation, and newspapers of recent days, representative of a different ideology, will be compared in this dissertation to highlight the censorship the government fed to the population through journalism in the days of the Gwangju Uprising, putting under the light the consequences that ‘bad journalism’ led to in the reconstruction of the events of Gwangju, adding to the wounds Korean population is trying to heal from caused by the oppression it was subjected to. The ‘revised’ narration revealed after the fall of the authoritarian regime constitutes an attempt to make amends for past actions, and at the same time rests as a heavy weight on the hearts of the entire nation that remained for so long oblivious to the painful burden the people of Gwangju had to carry, alone.