“사법처리는 언론자유 침해 행위” [미디어오늘] ‘국경없는 기자단’(RSF)이 안기부(국정원) 도청 테이프의 존재를 세상에 알린 이상호 MBC 기자를 지지하는 성명을 냈다. RSF는 지난 19일 <물의를 빚었던 도청 테이프 관련 조사, 언론인을 제외한 모두에게 면죄부>라는 제목의 성명에서 이번 도청테이프 관련 검찰조사를 “헌법에서 보장을 받고 있는 언론자유를 침해한 행위”라고 비판했다. RSF는 “오늘(19일) 한국의 천정배 법무장관에게 검찰의 중간 수사발표 재고를 요청했다”며 “우리가 기대했던 것은 불법 테이프에 연루된 75명의 언론인 이름이었는데 검찰이 발표한 것은 이 사건을 사회에 알린 언론인 뿐 이었다. 이것이 거대한 정치 비리와 연관된 긴 수사의 결과라니 심히 놀랍다”고 실망감을 나타냈다. RSF는 이어 “1997년 대선 때 삼성그룹이 정치권에 1000만 달러의 불법 자금을 제공한 것과 관련해 검찰은 ‘공소시효’가 끝났다며 정치 인사 누구도 수사하지 않았다”며 “반면 이를 세상에 알린 이상호 MBC 기자와 김연광 월간조선 편집장만 통신비밀보호법으로 불구속 기소했다”고 형평성을 지적했다. RSF는 프랑스 파리에 본부를 둔 언론인 단체로서 지난 2002년부터 매년 전 세계의 기자·학자·변호사·인권운동가 등에게 50가지 질문을 던진 결과를 취합해 세계 각 국의 언론자유 지수를 발표하고 있다. 올해 한국의 언론자유 지수는 지난해보다 열 네 계단 오른 34위를 기록했다.   다음은 성명서 전문 [SOUTH KOREA] Probe into secret service phone tapping scandal clears everyone except the journalists Reporters Without Borders today called on South Korean Justice minister Chun Jung-Bae to seek a revision of the conclusions of a public prosecutor's investigation into telephone tapping by the South Korean secret services a decade ago "insofar as the prosecutor's decisions violate the freedom of the press that is guaranteed by the constitution." In his findings published on 14 December, a Seoul prosecutor decided that two journalists who revealed the phone tapping will be tried, but those whose involvement in political corruption was exposed by the tapping will not be charged because too much time has elapsed since the offences were committed. "The findings of this long investigation with enormous political implication are extremely surprising," Reporters Without Borders said. "We expected to learn the names of the 75 journalists whose phones were illegally tapped, but instead we find the prosecutor only takes an interest in the journalists who revealed this case." The press freedom organisation added: "It is grotesque that those responsible for the corruption and those who ordered the phone taps have been whitewashed, while the journalists who went out of their way to investigate this case now face the possibility of prison sentences." The report published on 14 December by Hwang Kyo-an of the central Seoul bureau of prosecutors details the findings of his investigation into clandestine phone tapping carried out by the secret services from 1993 until November 1997, a period in which the conversations of more than 5,400 people including 75 journalists were monitored. The taps revealed, for example, that a former chairman of the opposition conservative party illegally received 10 million dollars from the consumer electronics giant Samsung in 1997. Yet none of the senior political officials implicated in corruption by the phone taps are to be charged because of the lapse of time. However, the prosecutor has charged Lee Sang-ho, a reporter with the privately-owned TV station MBC, and Kim Yeon-kwang, the editor of the monthly Chosun, with violating the law on confidential communications. It was MBC who exposed the phone tapping scandal in July. Lee was questioned several times by the prosecutor's office, while Kim was questioned just once, for two hours on 7 December. Kong Un-yeong, the former head of the "Mirim" phone tapping unit, tried to commit suicide in July following the revelations. He is currently detained. William Park, a Korean-American businessman, has meanwhile been sentenced to 14 months in prison for trying to blackmail Samsung and for passing recordings to Lee. Lee received an award from Transparency International at the start of this month for his active role in combating corruption. He told Reporters Without Borders: "I have always put the public's right to be informed above respect for a law on confidential information that was adopted by the same government that carried out all these thousands of illegal phone taps." This is the first time that journalists have been charged under this law. Their trial, in which they face up to 10 years in prison, could start as early as next month.