1904?1910 English- and Korean-language newspaper
The Korea Daily News
was an English-language newspaper published in the
Korean Empire
between 1904 and 1910. It also published editions in
Korean mixed script
and
Hangul
under the name
Taehan Maeil Sinbo
(
Korean
:
大韓每日申報
;
Hanja
:
大韓每日申報
).
After a few trial issues under the name
Korea Times
, the newspaper formally launched as the
Daily News
on 18 July 1904. It was published by
Ernest Bethell
, a British citizen who sharply criticized the
Empire of Japan
's rapid encroachment on Korean sovereignty. After Tokyo began indirectly ruling Korea in 1905, Bethell was one of the only newspaper publishers able to write critically about Japan, although he and the newspaper were subject to increasing retaliation.
The newspaper was sold after Bethell's death in 1909, and became an organ of the
colonial government
called
Maeil Sinbo
.
It was published until the 1945
liberation of Korea
, when it was seized by the
United States occupying force
and reorganized into today's
Seoul Shinmun
.
[1]
[2]
Some issues of the English and most of the Korean issues are freely available on the
Korean Newspaper Archive
website.
[3]
[4]
History
[
edit
]
Establishment
[
edit
]
In 1904, British journalists
Ernest Bethell
and Thomas Cowen
[5]
were sent to Korea to report for the British newspaper
Daily Chronicle
.
[6]
Around this time, Japan was stepping up its encroachment into Korean sovereignty. After being fired from the paper,
[5]
Bethell and Cowen began planning to publish their own paper tentatively called the
Korea Times
(different from later
The Korea Times
).
[5]
However, Cowen was secretly supportive of Japan, and unbenownst to Bethell, warned the Japanese government of the paper's founding.
[5]
The pair,
[5]
along with Korean independence activist
Yang Gi-tak
, published the first trial issue of the
Korea Times
, completely in English, on June 29, 1904.
[1]
Shortly afterwards, Cowen quit the paper and left to Japan, and the paper changed its name to
The
Korea Daily News
.
[5]
The first non-trial issue under the new name was published on 18 July 1904.
[1]
[5]
[6]
The issue had six pages, with two in Korean (in
mixed script
) and four in English.
[2]
How exactly the newspaper was financed is unknown.
Emperor Gojong
did finance Bethell by transferring funds through
Antoinette Sontag
, owner of the
Sontag Hotel
. Some theorized that Bethell was funded by the
Russian Empire
, Japan's rivals for Korean sovereignty, although Bethell dismissed this idea. Funding was still insufficient; in March 1905, printing of the paper was suspended as he went to Japan to buy a printer and try to raise money. By 11 August,
[1]
printing resumed,
[5]
this time with separate Korean and English editions.
[1]
[2]
Growth and attention from Japan
[
edit
]
After Korea was forced to sign the
Japan?Korea Treaty of 1905
in November, Japanese control over the peninsula increased.
[1]
[6]
Newspapers were then censored by the
Japanese Resident-General of Korea
. Bethell, as a British citizen, was able to dodge Japanese censorship and continue publishing newspapers.
[6]
However, he was frequently harassed by the Japanese.
[5]
The contemporary Canadian journalist
Frederick Arthur MacKenzie
wrote:
The Japanese were making his life as uncomfortable as they possibly could, and were doing everything to obstruct his work. His mail was constantly tampered with; his servants were threatened or arrested on various excuses, and his household was subjected to the closest espionage. He displayed surprising tenacity, and held on month after month without showing any sign of yielding.
[5]
Gojong and other Koreans praised Bethell and saw him as a hero. On 10 February 1906, Gojong gave Bethell a handwritten note, putting him in charge of communications and the press of the empire and subsidizing his expenses.
[1]
On 21 February 1907,
The Korea
Daily News
published a letter that launched the
National Debt Repayment Movement
: a grassroots effort to pay off Korea's debts to Japan in a bid to avoid Japanese encroachment. The newspaper became the main champion of the campaign. Its staff formed an association (
國債補償支援金總合소
) to manage donations it received.
[1]
That May, they offered to house
Ahn Chang Ho's
New People's Association
, sheltering it under Bethell's immunity from Japanese persecution.
[1]
On 23 May 1907, the
Korea Daily News
established an entirely
Hangul
version of the newspaper, alongside the original version that was written in both Hanja and Hangul.
[1]
[6]
In August, when the
Korean Empire's army
was forcefully disbanded, impromptu militias dubbed "
righteous armies
" arose in armed rebellion. The newspaper devoted much of its reporting around this time to their activities, and urged civilians to join the fight.
[1]
By 27 May 1908, circulation of the paper reached 13,256 copies (8,143 in mixed script, 4,650 in Hangul, and 463 in English),
[1]
more than all other newspapers in Korea combined.
[6]
In 1907, the Japanese published the
Newspaper Act
, which was partially targeted at the paper and placed various restrictions on Koreans purchasing it.
[2]
Bethell was arrested and tried by the British twice by request of the Japanese government.
[2]
[5]
[6]
He transferred ownership of the paper to his assistant editor Arthur Marnham, who carried on reporting critically of Japan.
[5]
Bethell eventually won his second trial at the
British Supreme Court for China
in December 1908, and defiantly immediately returned to continue reporting.
[5]
However, he died several months afterwards, likely due to his unhealthy lifestyle
[5]
and stress from his imprisonments.
[6]
His last words were reportedly "Even if I may die,
The Korea Daily News
will live on and help the Korean people".
[1]
[6]
[a]
End and rename to
Maeil Sinbo
[
edit
]
On 21 May 1910,
[1]
Marnham folded under joint British and Japanese pressure.
[5]
He secretly sold the newspaper to former employee Lee Jang-hoon (
이장훈
;
李章薰
) for 40,000
won
in gold
[2]
and left the country.
[5]
The 14 June 1910 edition?the paper's 1408th issue?reflects this, with Lee's name given as editor.
[2]
Yang and other Korean independence activists resigned and denounced the paper publicly as a propaganda piece.
[1]
[2]
The paper stopped publishing in English,
[5]
and became strictly controlled by Japan.
[5]
Its final issue was the 1461th mixed-script and 938th Hangul issue.
[1]
It changed its name to
Maeil Sinbo
(
每日申報
;
每日申報
) on 30 August 1910,
[1]
[5]
and it was integrated into the
Keij? Nipp?
thereafter
.
[1]
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
『나는 죽을지라도 大韓每日申報는 永生(永生)케 해 韓民族을 求하라.』
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
The Korea Daily News
at Wikimedia Commons