Cultural Blacklist

[Anchor Lead]

People in the arts and culture sector who were blacklisted by the previous government continue to come forward with their stories. The most recent case involves systematic efforts made to disadvantage cultural figures during a cultural exchange event held with France to mark 130 years in bilateral relations.

[Pkg]

The Korean film "The Attorney" which is the story of late President Roh Moo-hyun was an acclaimed film both at home and abroad. However it was not included in a film screening held in France in 2015 as one of official events to celebrate Korea-France Exchange Year. An investigation by a fact-finding committee has found that then chief of the Korean culture center in France exerted pressure for the film to be dropped. Five films that were excluded at the time due to such pressure also included "A Single Spark" and "The President's Last Bang."

[Soundbite] Song Gyeong-dong(Committee Official) : "An employee spoke up at the time saying it's unfair to treat artists this way. A senior official refuted saying that if they do art opposing the government, they can do it with their own money, and that it's not an exclusion."

Also during the Paris Book Fair, 13 Korean authors requested by the French side were sidelined, including Han Kang and Hwang Sok-yong. These 13 writers were blacklisted by the Seoul government because they took part in a public statement protesting the Sewol ferry disaster. However, France went out of its way to invite 4 of the 13 sidelined authors by paying their expenses, which created an embarrassing situation for Korea. In the meantime, the previous government is found to have conducted poor deliberations in order to increase the budget for a project on promoting Korean food in France which was carried out by a company led by Choi Soon-sil, a long time confidante of the ousted former President Park Geun-hye.