The majority of Korean mass media have been serving the government by employing characteristics of the Soviet and Nazi propaganda. In 1961 the South Korean dictator Park Jung-hee started a coup d'état whose slogan of justification read, "(We are) anti-communist, pro-American; anti-corruption programme and rehabilitation of national economy". He also inaugurated the Korean version of CIA and assassinated thousands of innocent people. During an interview at Dong-ah Broadcast Station (DBS) in 1963 Park Jung-hee shouted into the microphone, "Don't tell lies when you're broadcasting!" Of course this was his reaction to the station's "emotional broadcast" containing their dissatisfaction about his military junta. In 1964 during the Third of June Affair the Park Jung-hee government arrested 6 employees of the station on the grounds of agitating a rebellion and orchestrating a student demonstration with a programme called "The Parrot". This marked the start of the oppression of mass media in Korea. Needless to say, many journalists were willing to risk their lives for telling the truth. Consequently, several honest and hard-working journalists were fired and 134 employees of DBS and Dongh-ah newspaper were kicked out onto the street by gangsters whom Park-Junghee had sent on an early morning. The journalists were only trying to report the suppression of human rights and the deprivation of rights to survive.

Even after the collapse of the military government, the Korean mass media were acting as puppets for the government and politicians. The owners and editors-in-chief of newspapers and television stations were bribed to distort facts and broadcast partial information to the public.

However, with the introduction of Internet, Koreans quickly managed to take advantage of the cyber world. Korea is and has been one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world (Wi-Fi signals are everywhere, even on the bus) and thanks to the incredible demand and supply of the Internet, virtually everyone got access to a never-ending sea of information. Due to corruptions and selfishness of the politicians, the people have never been satisfied with the politics in Korea. Internet was a very useful source to voice their opinions and discuss them with others. And this was a great opportunity for Ohmynews: Every citizen is a reporter.

Of course, it is important to consider the quality of the articles. Not everyone can write an article and expect it to be published on an online newspaper which has 15 millions readers everyday. There are professionally trained journalists who edit and correct articles written by Korean citizens.

Due to their ambition to propagate their "citizen journalism," Ohmynews also started a Japanese and an international version. The Japanese Ohmynews is mostly about what is happening in Japan and the international Ohmynews treats news around the world. Recently, there have been many articles sent from Iraq.

Even though many Koreans may not realise, Korea is still a backward country in many ways. The country is still in chaos and in a time like this, Korea needs honest and passionate journalism not in order to overthrow the government, but to awaken its people and endorse them to stand up for themselves.

* Koreans do not call themselves South Koreans and therefore it is obvious that no one calls their country "South Korea". Even though a lot of South Koreans feel that North Koreans are their own people, it seems, judging by this fact, that they only acknowledge South Korea to be the only Korea.