Naver, the largest online portal in South Korea, had decided to discontinue the fact-check menu on its News Home, following the suspension of financial support for the nation’s unique fact-checking platform SNU FactCheck Center (factcheck.snu.ac.kr). (Image courtesy of Yonhap News)
SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Korea Bizwire) – Naver, the largest online portal in South Korea, had decided to discontinue the fact-check menu on its News Home, following the suspension of financial support for the nation’s unique fact-checking platform SNU FactCheck Center (factcheck.snu.ac.kr).
According to the SNU FactCheck Center on Monday, Naver plans to terminate the fact-check menu on its News Home site, a feature it has maintained since early 2018, effective from Tuesday.
Prior to this, Naver halted all financial support related to SNU FactCheck at the end of last month, resulting in the suspension of news media support projects by the SNU FactCheck Center.
Journalists from news media affiliated with the SNU FactCheck Center released a joint statement on Monday, expressing their inability to contain their anger and sorrow over Naver’s latest decision.
They stressed that Naver has played a significant role in advancing the nation’s fact-check journalism over the past six years, and such commendable efforts should persist. Extending benefits to news media is a fundamental obligation for a platform company.
SNU FactCheck is an information service platform established by the Institute of Communication Research at Seoul National University in March 2017 to inform the public about matters of public interest verified by news media.
Over the past six years, affiliated news media have produced more than 4,700 fact-check news articles, made available to the public through SNU FactCheck and Naver News Home’s fact-check menu.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
