Journalists’ Evaluation of the South Korean Government's Crisis Management in the Cheonan Incident

The purpose of this study was to examine how journalists judge and react to the withholding of information by the government during a national crisis. This article analyses the case of the sinking of the Cheonan , which killed four South Korean marines and sparked extreme tension throughout the Korean peninsula. For this research, in‐depth interviews were conducted with journalists who reported on the Cheonan incident. All participants (11 journalists) believed that the South Korean government withheld information about the cause of the Cheonan sinking for a period of time. Half of the journalists did not agree with the governmental restrictive information policy, while the other half accepted this as the government acting in the best interest of national security in a crisis situation.