Prison Terms for Two S. Korean Newspaper Executives

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 28, 2001

Prison Terms for Two S. Korean Newspaper Executives

South Koreaan State prosecutors asked a Seoul criminal court on Tuesday to hand prison terms of up to 4 years to two newspaper executives charged with tax evasion.

Song Pil-ho, a vice president of the daily JoongAng Ilbo, and Lee Jae-hong, another JoongAng executive, are on trial on charges of evading 760 million won ($585,000) in taxes.

Prosecutors also sought a 1.5 billion won ($1.2 million) fine each for Song and the newspaper.

The Seoul district criminal court was expected to hand down verdicts Dec. 20.

The two JoongAng executives were among 12 newspaper owners and executives indicted in August following a tax probe by government inspectors. Prosecutors are also seeking prison terms for the other executives.

In the tax probe, 23 media organizations were accused of evading taxes totaling 505.6 billion won ($339 million) between 1995 and 2000.

The tax investigation triggered a debate over whether the government was trying to muzzle critical news media. The government says newspapers should be held financially accountable like any other company.

President Kim Dae-jung has been at odds with the nation's major newspapers, which have questioned his economic and North Korea policies.

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