National Power Park Seong-hoon "You should not keep your mouth shut for fear of retaliation."

As threats against corruption and public interest reporters become more frequent, the number of requests for personal protection received in just 9 months this year reached 108.

According to data from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission released by People Power Party lawmaker Park Seong-hoon, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, on the 4th, the number of requests for personal protection measures for reporters has steadily increased from 13 in 2021 to 15 in 2022, 35 in 2023, 55 in 2024, and 93 in 2025.

This year, 108 cases had already been received as of September, exceeding last year's number of cases, and 11 requests for emergency personal protection measures were also included.

The number of public interest reporter protection cases themselves also increased approximately 3.8 times in four years, from 169 in 2021 to 639 last year.

On the other hand, case processing is not speeding up. The number of cases that exceeded the statutory processing period of 90 days reached 106 last year and a cumulative 442 over the past five years. The longest case took 942 days to process.

Representative Park pointed out that recently, a public interest reporter who raised the suspicion of 'requesting approval for clinical trials of new drugs' related to former Minister of Justice candidate Kim Seung-won requested personal protection, claiming identity exposure and threats, but it has not been processed for several days.

At the same time, he said, “We must have a quick and thorough protection system that immediately protects urgent cases and takes responsibility until after the protection decision is made so that reporters do not keep quiet due to fear of retaliation.”