25 cultural, civic groups blast blacklist creator's SPO appointment

Civic and cultural groups have opposed the recent appointment of Cho Yoon-sun as a nonexecutive director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, pointing to her involvement in a blacklist of cultural figures.

On Wednesday, an alliance of 25 organizations -- including the Screen Actors Guild of Korea, the Association of Korean Independent Film and Video and Writers Association of Korea -- released a statement condemning Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon for approving Cho’s appointment and demanding its withdrawal.

Cho, a lawyer and politician, previously served as the minister of gender equality and family, and later as minister of culture. However, she was jailed for abuse of power and coercion during the Park Geun-hye administration.

Cho was sentenced in February 2022 to 10 months in prison, with a two-year suspended sentence, for her involvement in the “whitelist” case, in which conservative organizations received illegal support during the Park administration. She was pardoned in December of that year.

Later, in early 2023, she received a 14-month prison sentence for creating a cultural sector blacklist of artistic and cultural figures who were critical of the government or supported opposition politicians -- including Korea's first winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature, Han Kang -- in order to deny them government funding.

Cho completed her sentence for the blacklist during the investigation and trial process, was pardoned by President Yoon Suk Yeol in August, and her civil rights were restored in September.

Last week, she was appointed as a nonexecutive director of the SPO board of directors, which is responsible for overseeing the city orchestra's operations and strategic direction.

"The current reality -- in which a person who once choked artists through a blacklist and drove Korea's cultural and artistic ecosystem into a state of ruin now quietly takes a director position in one of Seoul’s leading arts organizations without a single word of apology or remorse -- brings renewed pain and suffering to many in the cultural and arts community who were deeply scarred by the blacklist incident," the statement read.

The statement urged the National Assembly promptly to enact a "Blacklist Special Law" and immediately conduct an investigation into the Yoon administration and Oh Se-hoon's Seoul city administration. It also called on the Seoul mayor to revoke Cho's appointment.

Asked to comment on the opposition to Cho's appointment, a spokesperson of the Seoul Metropolitan Government told The Korea Herald Wednesday that a talent recommendation committee had selected Cho among other candidates based on her expertise in the field. Cho applied for the role when the position was announced in September.

“During Oh Se-hoon's first term as Seoul mayor, Cho, who is the author of a book about operas, made a series of important recommendations, such as sound innovation plans for the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts and operational strategies for an outdoor music hall in Gwangjin, which turned out to be great,” the spokesperson said.

Oh served as mayor of Seoul from July 2006 to August 2011 before resigning amid a dispute over free school lunches. After a decade away from office, he returned as mayor in a by-election in April 2021 and was re-elected in June 2022.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government currently has no plan to withdraw Cho's appointment, the spokesperson said, saying that Cho's civil rights were restored through a pardon in September.

Cho’s term as a nonexecutive member is three years.