Yonhap News Agency
Native name | |
---|---|
Korean name | |
Hangul | 주식회사 연합뉴스 |
Hanja | 株式會社 聯合뉴스 |
Revised Romanization | Jusikhoesa Yeonhamnyuseu |
McCune–Reischauer | Chusikhoesa Yŏnhamnyusŭ |
Founded | 19 December 1980 |
Headquarters | Seoul, South Korea |
Owner | Korea News Agency Commission: 30.77% Korean Broadcasting System: 27.78% Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation: 22.30% |
Website | en |
Yonhap News Agency (
History
Yonhap (pronounced [jʌ̹n.ha̠p̚], Korean: 연합; Hanja: 聯合; RR: Yeonhap; MR: Yŏnhap; lit. United) was established on 19 December 1980, through the merger of Hapdong News Agency and Orient Press.[1] The Hapdong News Agency itself emerged in late 1945 out of the short-lived Kukje News, which had operated for two months out of the office of the Domei, the former Japanese news agency that had functioned in Korea during the Japanese colonial era.[1]
In 1999, Yonhap took over the Naewoe News Agency. Naewoe was a South Korea government-affiliated organization, created in the mid 1970s, tasked with publishing information and analysis on North Korea from a South Korean perspective through books and journals.[2][1] Naewoe was known to have close links with South Korea's intelligence agency,[2] and according to the British academic and historian James Hoare, Naowoe's publications became "less partisan after the late 1980s and are often useful source of information on North Korea".[3] In 1999, Naewoe merged with Yonhap News Agency,[1] with materials on North Korea continued to be "distributed for free as part of the government's propaganda effort".[3] According to the U.S. Library of Congress, "Originally a propaganda vehicle that followed the government line on unification policy issued, Naowae Press became increasingly objective and moderate in tone in the mid-1980s in interpreting political, social, and economic developments in North Korea".[4] Naowae's principal publication was the monthly magazine Vantage Point: Developments in North Korea, which continued to be published by Yonhap until its discontinuation in 2016.[5]
It launched the television news channel YTN on 2 December 1996, but separated the channel in 1998. It launched again in 2011 by its namesake channel Yonhap News.
Activity
Yonhap maintains various agreements with 90 non-Korean news agencies, and also has a services-exchange agreement with North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) agency, signed in 2002.[6] It is the only Korean wire service that works with foreign news agencies,[7] and provides a limited but freely-available selection of news on its website in Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Arabic, and French.
Yonhap was the host news agency of the 1988
Yonhap is South Korea's only news agency large enough to have some 60 correspondents abroad and 600 reporters across the nation.[6] Its largest shareholder is the Korea News Agency Commission (KONAC).
In 2003, the South Korean government passed a law giving financial and systematic assistance to the agency, to reinforce staff and provide equipment.
Journalists
Yonhap employs about 600 reporters. It has some 60 correspondents in 26 countries.[6] Yonhap is one of few Korean news organizations with a section specialized in North Korea reports. In 1998, Yonhap acquired from the National Intelligence Service a news wire service monitoring North Korean media and analyzing North Korea–related information. Yonhap incorporated the firm and its staff into the newsroom, creating a special division (often referred to as the 'N.K. news desk') to improve its reporting on North Korea. In January 2009, two reporters from the N.K. news desk disclosed that Kim Jong Un had been chosen as heir apparent to North Korea's longtime leader, Kim Jong Il. Later, in 2010, the reporters won the grand journalism award for the exclusive story from the Korean Journalist Association. It was the first time in nine years that the association had awarded the prize.[10]
The Cho Gye-chang award
The Korean Journalist Association in 2010 established the Cho Gye-chang Journalism Award for achievement in international news reporting to commemorate Cho Gye-chang, the former Yonhap correspondent in
Global Network
Yonhap News has more than 60 journalists in 33 areas in 25 countries.[13]
Asia-Pacific
- Greater China: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Hong Kong, Taipei
- Japan: Tokyo, Osaka
- Vietnam: Hanoi
- Thailand: Bangkok
- India: New Delhi
- Indonesia: Jakarta
- Australia: Sydney
- New Zealand: Auckland
Europe
- United Kingdom: London
- France: Paris
- Germany: Berlin
- Switzerland: Geneva
- Russia: Moscow
- Belgium: Brussels
Americas
- Canada: Vancouver
- Sao Paulo
- Mexico: Mexico City
Middle East
Africa
See also
- Communications in South Korea
- Korean Central News Agency, North Korean equivalent
- Media of South Korea
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1857432589.
- ^ ISBN 978-0810861510.
- ^ ISBN 978-0810849495.
- ISBN 978-0844407364.
- ^ Park, No-hwang (January 2016). "Discontinuance of Publication" (PDF). Vantage Point: Developments in North Korea. 39 (1). Yonhap News Agency: I. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 November 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ a b c d "About Us". Seoul: Yonhap News Agency. 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-932705-67-6.
- ISBN 978-1-4020-0947-1.
- ^ See e.g. (2nd LD) "S. Korean lawmakers heap criticism on government's reversal in airstrip row". Yonhap. January 12, 2009.
- ^ "미디어오늘 9년만의 한국기자상 대상 연합뉴스 최선영 장용훈". Media Today. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
- ^ "Cho Gye-chang Journalism Award". Journalists Association of Korea (in Korean). Retrieved 5 May 2018.
- ^ "조계창 특파원, 정말 부지런했던 기자" Yonhap. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
- Yonhap News.
External links
Media related to Yonhap News Agency at Wikimedia Commons