Korean Hostages: A Low Priority…For Koreans?

Filed under: Korea — Jeff in Korea at 9:58 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Earlier today, Kevin over at Big Hominid stated:

I don’t understand how Lindsay Lohan’s recent arrest … is more newsworthy than the terrifying drama unfolding in Central Asia. What exactly am I missing? A cynic might say this is a reality check for Koreans…

I think it is more of a reality check for the Koreans to look at themselves and whether the hostage situation is more important that a semi-final game of the Asian Cup football/soccer tournament.

During the game, it was announced that 8 of the Korean hostages in Afganistan had been released. Shortly thereafter Al Jazeera reported that one of the Korean hostages had been killed by the Taliban. I noticed the story during a quick check of the news during a lull in the soccer match. The story was then picked up by Reuters.

Did KBS2 break into the soccer match to announce that 8 hostages had been released or that one hostage has been reported killed? No.

Did KBS2’s soccer announcers mention the news? No.

Did KBS2 run a crawler across the bottom of the screen to announce the breaking news? No, but they did run a crawler apologizing for preempting a comedy program because the soccer match went into overtime, and they sent another crawler across the screen assuring viewers that some drama would be shown immediately after the game and gave a brief synopsis of the upcoming episode.

It seems that KBS2 thinks the outcome of a sporting event is more important that the outcome of a hostage crisis and reports of their countrymen being murdered.

Update:

Al Jazeera is now confirming that one Korean has been killed:

The Taliban has killed one of 23 South Korean hostages after negotiations for their release broke down, according to a Taliban spokesman.

James Bays, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Afghanistan, said that he was told by the spokesman that “a male hostage had been killed and his body was left next to the main Kabul-Kandahar highway.”

The Afghan government confirmed the Taliban had killed one of the captives on Wednesday.

“I can confirm that one of the hostages has been killed by the Taliban,” Waheedullah Mujadadi, the head of the Afghan delegation negotiating for the release of the South Koreans, told the AFP news agency.

Taliban set a “final deadline” of 20:30 GMT on Wednesday for their demands for a prisoner swap to be met.

2 Comments »

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Comment by ExpatJane

25 July 2007 @ 10:43 pm

It’s much easier to judge when you’re on the outside.

The same can be said for major stories in the US.

When Paris Hilton was in jail the focus on her was obscene. The focus should have been on drunk driving. The same holds for Lindsay Lohan. She gets a whole panel of people talking ad nauseum about her on Larry King Live when maybe the focus should have been on drug abuse and driving under the influence.

CNN clearly thinks, and is probably right, that a panel on Lindsay Lohan’s problems interspersed with photos of her in bikinis and glamorous gowns would get more attention than discussing the victims of drivers too irresponsible and self-absorbed to find a way to get home that doesn’t involve them putting themselves, and, most importantly, others in harm’s way.

It doesn’t make KBS2’s focus right, but you can’t say that the same thing doesn’t occur elsewhere.

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Comment by Jeff in Korea

25 July 2007 @ 11:21 pm

ExpatJane,

You are absolutely correct. As far as celebrity “news” goes, I never have, and probably NEVER will, understand people’s fascination with what the rich and/or famous celebrities are doing. ANYTHING is more important that that, but for some reason, there is not much that draws in more viewers.

But I was, and still am, completely amazed that KBS2 didn’t even put a news crawler across the bottom of the screen announcing that 8 hostages had been freed or that one is reported to have been murdered. As huge as an issue as this is for Korea, it makes no sense that they wouldn’t even do that.

Whatever channel 4 is on my TV had several stories, calls from correspondents in the Middle-East,and a report from a reporter standing in front of the Blue House.

If the soccer game is just too important to cut into, you’d think they would at least have a crawler. I just don’t get it.

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