President Lee Calls Daejang-dong Coverage ‘Fabricated,’ Urges Korea Newspaper Award Revocation

President Lee Jae-myung on April 24 called for revoking a Korea Newspaper Award given for reporting three years ago on the Daejang-dong development allegations, saying the work was not fact-finding but “massive fabrication.”
 
Lee, on a state visit to Vietnam, wrote on X that the award jury said it honored the coverage because it “consistently uncovered powerful facts” in reporting on the Daejang-dong issue.
 
He argued that the reporting “created” a reference to “that person, Lee Jae-myung” that was not in the Daejang-dong recordings, and claimed it helped defeat the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the last election and “changed the course of Korean history.”
 
Lee said the country “moved backward,” people suffered “tremendous pain,” and the fallout continues.
 
He said the outlet should return the award, apologize and correct the report, adding that there must never again be an attempt to change history through election manipulation by state power agencies and the media.
 
The Korea Newspaper Association previously selected the DongA Ilbo legal affairs team’s “Daejang-dong development and illegal campaign funds allegations” as the 2023 winner in the news reporting category. The jury said at the time that the series “consistently uncovered powerful facts” in covering the Daejang-dong issue.