President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday named Park Bo-gyoon to become his administration‘s first minister of culture, sports and tourism.

Park, a former journalist and vice president of the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, was the president of Korea News Editors’ Association in 2011.

After he joined the People’s Power Party in July 2021, Park played a role as a special adviser in the party’s election committee and election headquarters. In March, Park became the special adviser to President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol as well.

“With his 40-year career as a journalist, Park has put his passion into Korean culture and history,” Yoon said during a press briefing at the presidential transition committee headquarters in Seoul.

“I believe Park will have active communication with the media. He will develop Korean culture, sports and tourism, playing a huge role in promoting Korean culture and solving the regulation on culture businesses,” Yoon added.

Following the announcement, Park pledged to prevent a repeat of the blacklist scandal, which came to light in 2016.

“The word blacklist itself cannot exist,” Park said Sunday. “It‘s a nightmare of the past, so I do not think such a thing can happen in the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.”

The scandal that he refers to is the blacklisting of nearly 10,000 figures in the culture and entertainment sectors during the administrations of former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak. The administrations unfairly subjected them to investigations and their applications for government subsidies and support were denied.

Park also added that Yoon’s administration will work both toward securing journalists’ freedom and responsibility, while also finding a balance between clashing and cooperating with them.

“Journalists working in the field should be professional and also have a sense of responsibility as media in their hearts. The Yoon Suk-yeol administration will lead them to harmonize those two elements,” he said.

(ssh@heraldcorp.com) (sj_lee@heraldcorp.com)