Meet another Hinzpeter
Jun-young Rha
27th President of the Korea Video Journalist Association
The Hinzpeter Awards is jointly organized by the May 18 Memorial Foundation and the Korea Video Journalist Association. The Awards was established to recognize video journalists for their coverage of democratic movements around the world and promote their efforts and spirit. The Hinzpeter Awards is designed to honor video journalists who seek the truth, protect human rights and fight for justice as recorders of reality and chroniclers of history.
In 1986, it was the last day of mid-term exam in high school. My classmates and I gathered to start chatting. One of them suggested we go to a cathedral in his neighborhood (in Macheon-dong, Seoul) where a video of the Gwangju uprising would be played for the public. He had already been there despite of the caution from adults. And he began to explain what happened in Gwangju with much more details as if he had been in the middle of the uprising back then.
He said, soldiers holding guns stood in every corner of the city. People were shot dead and women who lost their husbands cried hard at a gymnasium crowded with coffins. A child who lost his father still did not know what was going on. Citizens armed with guns got onto trucks and roamed the streets, and other people applauded at them. At the square, thousands of people gathered to sing the national anthem…
Our teacher warned us to go straight home after the exam because the current situation was so chaotic and unsettling. When we left school, however, we found ourselves on a bus heading to the cathedral. In order to avoid combat soldiers surrounding the cathedral, we had to go around lanes in its neighborhood and snuck into the cathedral to watch the video. The vivid images we saw in the ‘Gwangju video’ left lasting impact and stirred up emotions in the minds of those young students including myself. In a way, we also felt doubtful and asked to ourselves “Was this really true?,” “Wasn’t the video made by North Korea?” I was not the only one who had such thoughts crossing mind.
In the following year, the “June 10 Uprising” occurred but what happened after that was completely different from before. The May 18 Democratic Uprising had thus far been a taboo, but from this time a lot of TV news footages, special documentaries and press articles about the movement poured out. In 1988, a parliamentary hearing was held on the May 18 Democratic Uprising and was broadcast all over the country. Stories featured in the Gwangju video turned out to be true, and my friends and I felt no more doubtful and anxious. In university, my friends and I also had chances to access videos and information related to the May 18 Democratic Uprising, and listened to the stories of other students who experienced and witnessed the uprising in 1980. We came to understand a little bit more about the tragedy and outrage of Gwangju citizens and why their pain and protests could not have ended. Then, I took interest in video filming and production and came to feel curious about who captured and reported the May 18 Democratic Uprising as shown in the “Gwangju video.”
During the May 18 Democratic Uprising, biased and distorted reports by broadcasters in Gwangju came under criticism from citizens. As the broadcasters’ office building was burned down, news reporting almost came to a stop. Broadcasters such as KBS, MBC, and TBS dispatched video journalists down to Gwangjuin but they were denied by soldiers access to the scenes of uprising. There was one video journalist who managed to capture the scene of Gwangju, but his footage was aired only for 10 seconds as a short news item during an evening news program.
In the history of the Korean video news coverage, the May 18 Democratic Uprising in 1980 was regarded as “lost time” and a shameful memory that no one wanted to mention, for both those who have been there to cover the story and their junior journalists. Naturally, I came to wonder who did capture the uprising in videos.
It was foreign video journalists who recorded and let the world learn about the tragedy of Gwangju and the citizens’ uprising at a time when Korean video journalists were nowhere. Among those foreign journalists who came to unfamiliar Korea and even more unfamiliar Gwangju in the face of danger was Mr. Hinzpeter. He was a video journalist working for ARD-NDR, Germany's largest public broadcaster, and was dispatched to Japan. He headed to Gwangju after he heard about the tragedy which occurred on May 18, 1980. For two days, he captured the scenes of the massacre committed by the martial law army and the citizens’ resistance. He snuck the film shunning inspection by the military regime and headed back to Japan. And he could send the footages to ARD-NDR headquarters so that they were broadcast across the world. After that, he returned to Gwangju and recorded the scenes until the uprising ended.
We remember Mr. Hinzpeter because of his journalistic spirit and achievements. He did not take the Gwangju story as a one-off subject for news, but constantly paid attention to Korea’s democratization and made efforts to tell the truth across the world. Gwangju citizens' uprising finally ended in tragedy on May 27, 1980. After that, his video footages of the uprising was sent to media outlets around the world and affected public opinion in the international community, and international solidarity began to form therefrom. A documentary film, titled
On December 3, 2003, video journalists in Korea had their first official meeting with Mr. Jurgen Hinzpeter. They expressed appreciation to him for his efforts to fill the absence of Korean journalists, and to support the May 18 Democratic Uprising and Korea’s democratization. In turn, he paid tribute to Koreans who achieved democratization despite the tragedy of Gwangju and sympathized with the dismal situation facing his fellow Korean video journalists back then. Another ten years has passed since then, and documentaries and films which shed lights on his footages and activities created a Hinzpeter craze in Korean society. However, memories fade over time. Vivid memories, intense images and the truth can be distorted, shaken and lost. That is why the city of Gwangju and video journalists agreed to establish the “Hintspeter Awards.”
The awards will be established for the journalists of democratic Korea and democratic Gwangju, which aims to realize the values of democracy and freedom of the press. It will be a completely different kind of awards from those media awards of the West, such as the Pulitzer Prize, the Peabody Awards, and the Rori Peck Award.
At a point where the tragedy of overthrown and trampled people is turned into democracy, journalists make reflection and resolution not to repeat the tragedy of May 1980. The May 18 Memorial Foundation, the Korea Video Journalist Association and the Municipality of Gwangju Metropolitan City will hold the 1st Hinzpeter Awards in October this year. The Organizing Committee of the Awards was launched in March and the official logo and competition schedule were announced in May. Winners will be announced at the end of August. Renowned journalists from home and abroad, video professionals and civic activists will be invited to join as judges.
Until today, we can find “May of Gwnagju” all over the world, including Myanmar, Hong Kong, and Thailand. I hope that the Awards will support for other Hinzpeters who record citizens’ voices and truth. And also I’m convince that it contributes to expand the values of democracy that Gwangju has achieved.