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The Chosun Ilbo

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The Chosun Ilbo is a very important newspaper in South Korea.

Chosun IIbo Logo
Chosun IIbo Logo

It is known as a newspaper of record for the country. This means people look to it for important news and facts. It is also one of the oldest newspapers still working in Korea. Every day, more than 1,800,000 people read its pages. The company also runs a website called Chosun.com. This site shares news in English, Chinese, and Japanese.

Chosun IIbo Logo
Chosun IIbo Logo

Learning how the paper works involves looking at its many parts. The main company has several smaller branches called subsidiaries. These include the Weekly Chosun and the Monthly Chosun. There is also Edu-Chosun and a business paper called ChosunBiz. Digital Chosun helps run the news website for readers online. The paper has also changed how it is written. For a long time, it used a vertical style. This meant writing went from top to bottom and right to left.

Chosun IIbo Logo
Chosun IIbo Logo

The history of the paper began a long time ago. Sin Sogu founded the newspaper on March 5, 1920. He had help from the Daejong Business Association. Cho Jin-Tae was the very first president of the paper. However, the paper had many hard years early on. The Japanese ruling government stopped the paper in 1940. Before 1932, the government took away its issues over five hundred times. The paper finally started again in 1945 after Korea gained independence.

Chosun IIbo Logo
Chosun IIbo Logo

There are many specific dates to remember about its changes. On March 1, 1999, the paper made a big choice. It decided to switch to a horizontal writing style. This means writing goes from left to right across the page. This was the last mainstream Korean paper to use the old style. The change happened just before the paper's 79th anniversary. Even with this change, they still use hanja characters. Hanja are special characters from Chinese that are used in Korean writing.

Chosun IIbo Logo
Chosun IIbo Logo

The newspaper has also faced many big arguments and legal issues. It often takes a hard stance against North Korea. This has led to heavy criticism and even threats. In 2005, people investigated if the paper helped the Japanese Empire. The paper also had legal trouble with its leader, Bang Sang-hoon. In 2002, he was accused of problems with taxes and company money. The Supreme Court later gave him a sentence involving a fine and prison time.

Chosun IIbo Logo
Chosun IIbo Logo
394 words

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