Documentary Screening - Search and Seizure: The Rise of Insurrection

South Korea’s leading investigative newsroom, Newstapa, faces the fiercest attack on press freedom in decades.In 2022, Newstapa reported allegations that presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, during his time as a prosecutor, had shielded a key figure in a major real-estate development scandal. Nearly eighteen months after Yoon took office, retaliation struck — sudden and unexpected. The presidential office denounced Newstapa’s report as an act of subversion against the state, ruling-party lawmakers branded its journalists “traitors who deserve execution,” and officials vowed to “shut it down.” Prosecutors then launched a so-called special task force on “election interference and opinion manipulation,” targeting Newstapa, and carried out unprecedented raids on the newsroom and reporters’ homes.Even while facing relentless prosecutorial attacks and trials, Newstapa’s reporters filmed and documented every stage of the Yoon administration’s crackdown — a record that ultimately chronicled the fall of a president and proved that press freedom is not just a right, but the last line of defense for democracy.