Yoon’s field trip without the press corps raises public curiosity[기자의 눈/이상헌]

President Yoon Seok-yeol visits Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province on the 4th to inspect the emergency room operation status. While President Yoon talks to medical staff at the site, the beds in the back are empty. Courtesy of the Office of the President

Lee Sang-heon, Political Department

“It was a night emergency room, but there were no patients in beds.”

A People Power Party lawmaker I recently met said this after seeing a photo released by the Blue House right after President Yoon Seok-yeol visited Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province at around 9 p.m. on the 4th, saying, “Many citizens will also have questions (about this image).”

In the released photos, there were no patients in the three beds behind President Yoon talking to medical staff. There was also a photo of President Yoon looking at an empty bed while talking to medical staff.

As the medical gap is prolonged, the sense of crisis about the emergency room chaos during the Chuseok holiday is growing. In this situation, President Yoon’s visit to the emergency room was an event that the entire nation should pay attention to. However, the picture of the emergency room that looked deserted was quite different from the cries heard from emergency rooms everywhere. Many people wondered why the hospital beds were empty, but the question could not be resolved. Because of this, some people said, “Didn’t they take precautions for the hospital beds in preparation for the president’s visit?”

On that day, reporters covering the presidential office were not allowed to accompany President Yoon to the emergency room. Usually, a joint press corps called “full reporters” accompanies the president when he goes on a trip. However, on that day, the visit to the emergency room was conducted as an “exclusive report,” with only the photo and video staff of the presidential office accompanying him.

‘Full coverage’ is a method in which, when it is difficult for multiple reporters to cover an event due to security reasons and smooth operation of the event, a small number of reporters represent the press corps and report on the scene and share the report with the press corps. Only in cases where full coverage is difficult, the photo and video staff of the Office of the President inevitably come in as exclusive reporters.

Regarding the reason for not allowing full coverage that day, an official from the presidential office said, “We considered the special circumstances of the emergency room, including the presence of patients and medical staff.” However, a government official pointed out, “Even the emergency room is a place where full coverage can be controlled,” and “It is difficult to understand why it was conducted only as an exclusive coverage when it was an event with high public interest.” President Yoon’s visit to the Nonghyup Hanaro Mart Changdong branch in Dobong-gu, Seoul on the 3rd to check the prices of Chuseok shopping baskets was also conducted as an exclusive coverage.

If a reporter had accompanied the president to the emergency room, he would have been able to see, hear, and ask questions about situations where there were no patients in the hospital beds. He would have been able to convey the emergency room scene that the president visited more accurately and vividly. There should always be a reporter present at the president’s important actions. Only then can the people’s basic right to know be met and unnecessary controversies be prevented.

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Reporter Lee Sang-heon [email protected]

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2024-09-07 09:09:33