Votes cast by over 300 members, including Publisher Lee Kyung-sik of The Korea Post

The Korea Journalists Club (KJC), the largest organization of the retired journalists of Korea, had a regular general meeting at the Press Center in Seoul on Jan. 22, 2014, and elected its Senior Advisor Kim Eun-koo as the 19th-term chairman of the KJC for a new four-year term.

An estimated total of over 300 members of the Club, including Publisher-Chairman Lee Kyung- sik of The Korea Post, attended the meeting, and cast their votes to elect the new chairman out of the two candidates, the other being Lee Byung-dae.

Kim started his journalist career as a reporter at the Korean-language daily and worked also at other Korean-language dailies such as Seoul Shinmun and Kyunghyang Shinmun.

Then he joined KBS TV-Radio where he worked as city-culture editor, director of the Office of Planning and Coordination and senior director in charge of the Business Management Department of KBS (comparable to the CEO of a business company).

The KJC general meeting also elected former KBS News Bureau Chief Kim Sung-bae and former MBC TV-Radio Auditor Chung Ki-Jung as new auditors of the KJC.

Speaking to the meeting, the newly elected chairman said that he would make added efforts for the promotion of the welfare of the KJC members.

He said that he would do his level best to honor the election pledges he had made, which consisted of (1) attraction of young members, (2) publication of righteous voices and (3) increasing of jobs. For this purpose, he said that he would form a special committee for proper implementation of the three work plans.

Then he said that he would also try to take a census to learn where all the retired journalists are and what they are doing because the front-running journalists should not just fade away because a reporter is a reporter wherever he/she may be.

I will try to seek support from the Korea Press Foundation and successfully complete this survey.
“There has never been such an effort before and this is the first time we are trying to learn what the journalists all do after their active term is over.” “I am sure that it will bring a great change to the ‘ecosystem of the journalist world’ where as soon as they leave from active duty they instantly become ghosts.”

Then he called upon the members to try to break the present convention where the journalists are forgotten as soon as they leave the company.

Outgoing Chairman Hong Won-ki said in his farewell address that he was glad that he was able to publish the stories of the Korean War correspondents with the support of the Korea Press Foundation, the anecdotes of the deceased journalists and the factual accounts of journalists written by former journalists over the age of 70.

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