(Getty)

       SEOUL -- A South Korean government agency collected private information of a South Korean reporter working for the Mainichi Shimbun's Seoul Bureau, it has been learned.

       The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), set up by President Moon Jae-in's administration in January 2021 to look into criminal activity among senior public servants, is known to have collected enormous volumes of private data on lawmakers belonging to South Korea's conservative main opposition People Power Party, as well as on reporters.

       That the CIO gathered personal data on a Mainichi reporter was confirmed through an information disclosure request. It is the third case of its kind, after the agency was found to have requested mobile phone data of South Korean reporters working for Japan's Asahi Shimbun and Tokyo Shimbun dailies.

       The Mainichi reporter filed an information disclosure request with a mobile phone carrier on Dec. 28, 2021, asking whether any agency had demanded their personal data in the past year. The reporter received a response on Jan. 3.

       According to the written response, the mobile carrier provided the CIO with information on Aug. 6, 2021, including the name of the reporter, their resident registration number, residential address and their mobile phone plan start date. The response also stated that the agency information request was made to protect trials, investigations, execution of criminal sentences, and/or national security.

       The Mainichi's Seoul Bureau asked the CIO directly why it had sought information on the reporter, as "newspaper companies have an obligation to protect their source of information and this kind of data gathering may threaten the freedom of the press."

       The CIO responded in writing on Jan. 3 that it had to query the mobile phone carrier due to investigative exigencies, and that the request was not for monitoring news gathering activities. The CIO did not explain what specific investigative needs were being served.

       A public relations official at The Mainichi Newspapers Co.'s President's Office commented, "Just citing 'investigative exigencies' does not dispel concerns over threats to freedom of the press. We demand that the agency provide additional explanation about how and why it made the information request, and that it never commit similar acts in the future."

       A separate information disclosure request has also found that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency sought private information on a South Korean reporter for the Mainichi's Seoul Bureau in May 2021. A police agency official stated on Jan. 3 that the information request was made as part of a probe into a suspected violation of the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act, as officers checked whom a subject of investigation had been calling.

       (Japanese original by Hirohiko Sakaguchi, Seoul Bureau Chief)

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