History

Munhwa Ilbo was formerly owned by the Hyundai

Hyundai

Hyundai ) is a global conglomerate company, part of the Korean chaebol, that was founded in South Korea by one of the most famous businessmen in Korean history: Chung Ju-yung...

 chaebol

Chaebol

Chaebol refers to a South Korean form of business conglomerate. They are global multinationals owning numerous international enterprises. The term is often used in a context similar to that of the English word "conglomerate"...

; however, Hyundai relinquished their control of the newspaper after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, at the same time as their competitor Hanwha

Hanwha

Hanwha Group is one of the largest business conglomerate in South Korea. Founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives Inc. , the group has grown into a large multi-profile business conglomerate, with diversified holdings stretching from explosives, their original business, to retail to financial...

 gave up its own daily, the Kyunghyang Shinmun

Kyunghyang Shinmun

The Kyunghyang Shinmun or Kyonghyang Sinmun is a major daily newspaper published in South Korea. It is based in Seoul. The name literally means Urbi et Orbi Daily News.-History:...

. Munhwa Ilbo was Hyundai's first target for separation as it begin trying to slim down its vast business empire; the divestiture was part of a larger trend at the time of chaebol selling off non-core

Core competency

A core competency is a concept in management theory originally advocated by CK Prahalad, and Gary Hamel, two business book writers. In their view a core competency is a specific factor that a business sees as being central to the way it, or its employees, works...

 assets and reducing excessive diversification

Diversification (marketing strategy)

Diversification is a form of corporate strategy for a company. It seeks to increase profitability through greater sales volume obtained from new products and new markets. Diversification can occur either at the business unit level or at the corporate level. At the business unit level, it is most...

. The newspaper was officially established as a separate financial entity in May 1998.

They opened an online edition

Online newspaper

An online newspaper, also known as a web newspaper, is a newspaper that exists on the World Wide Web or Internet, either separately or as an online version of a printed periodical....

 in May 1997. Since April 2005, they have had a partnership for sharing of news content and photographs with No Cut News

No Cut News

No Cut News is a daily newspaper run by South Korea's Christian Broadcasting System . Since April 2005, they have had a partnership with the Munhwa Ilbo for sharing of articles and photo content. In March 2006, they began printing a separate edition for North America, in competition with the...

.

Incidents

In January 2002, Munhwa Ilbo began to publish a serial novel

Serial (literature)

In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...

 Gangan Namja (강안남자) about the sexual exploits of a divorced car salesman, which attracted some public controversy. From 2002 to 2006, the newspaper received 28 warnings from the Korea Press Ethics Commission (KPEC) over the novel's content. On 2 November 2006, the presidential Blue House cut 57 of its subscriptions to the newspaper. They claimed it was because female employees of the Blue House had protested about Gangan Namja. Fellow dailies Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo

JoongAng Ilbo

JoongAng Ilbo is a conservative newspaper published in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the "big three newspapers" in South Korea. It has a circulation of 1.96 million copies in South Korea . Its average page count per copy is around 52...

, and Dong-a Ilbo criticised the Blue House's action as "government coercion of the press". However, Kim U-ryong of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies is one of the leading universities in the Republic of Korea.HUFS has been consistently ranked as one of the most prestigious higher education institutes in Korea, especially being ranked as a top in the field of Foreign Language...

 and Kim Eon-gyeong of the Citizens' Coalition for Democratic Media both described the novel as "obscene" and criticised its publication in a newspaper read by young people. Grand National Party

Grand National Party

The Grand National Party is a conservative political party in South Korea. Its Korean name, Hannara, has a double meaning as "Great National" and "Korean National." The GNP holds a majority of seats in the 18th Assembly, lasting from 2008 to 2012....

 spokeswoman Na Kyung-won

Na Kyung-won

Na Kyung-won is a South Korean politician and lawyer. She is a member of the conservative Grand National Party. She is one of two candidates of the October 2011 by-election after Oh Se-hoon resigned his position as the Mayor of Seoul...

 issued a statement opining that the real reason for the Blue House's subscription cancellation was Munhwa Ilbos criticism of the presidential administration, an accusation which a Blue House spokesman denied.

On 13 September 2007, Munhwa Ilbo printed nude photos of Dongguk University

Dongguk University

Dongguk University is a private, coeducational university in South Korea. It operates campuses in Seoul, in Gyeongju City, North Gyeongsang province and in Los Angeles, United States...

 professor Shin Jeong-ah

Shin Jeong-ah

Shin Jeong-ah , once known as the "art world's Cinderella," is a former assistant professor of art at Dongguk University and chief curator at Sungkok Art Museum who created a national scandal in South Korea shortly after her appointment in July 2007 as joint artistic director of the 2008 Gwangju...

, claiming that they were evidence of Shin's inappropriate relationship with university president Byeon Yang-kyoon. However, the KPEC rejected Munhwa Ilbos explanation, and ordered the daily to apologise, stating that they had damaged the dignity of all print media. Shin's lawyer stated that she planned to sue the newspaper for libel. They published the apology on the ffront page of their 18 October 2007 edition; however, the apology itself attracted criticism from the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, and the KPEC indicated that they would review the matter again to decide whether the newspaper's statement actually constituted a proper apology. In the end, Shin filed suit over the photos and the newspaper's coverage of her, receiving W

South Korean won

The won is the currency of South Korea. A single won is divided into 100 jeon, the monetary subunit. The jeon is no longer used for everyday transactions, and appears only in foreign exchange rates...

150 million (US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

113,000) in compensation in December 2008.