Dealing With Media Home or Abroad, Basics of Communication Are Same "Overseas media outlets have just resumed their air raids on Korea, "screamed a local paper headline. "The government should actively cope with foreigners' Korea bashing," pressed another. It seems as if some foreign dailies and research organs had set about to make already bad economic situations here worse. Are these foreign media seeking some windfall benefits by exaggerating a specific country's crisis in a conspiracy with their investors? Nonsense. A government official said these overseas papers and analysts often use incorrect statistics based on a most improbable assumption. Why bother, then? By most appearances, all this is just another bout of xenophobic popular responses to a situation caused by poor communication skills of the government. Some British media recently called Korea a country with one of the most serious foreign debt and banking problems in the world. Except fo a few misuses of terminology, the fact itself could hardly be disputed, for no media company in its right mind could ope to distort, much less fabricate, statistics. Interpretation of facts or figures, good or bad, is up to the writers or their companies. The Korean government and media should understand these foreign media are financial papers that put the interests of investors - i.e., advertisers - ahead of regulators, domestic or foreign, just like their Korean counterparts. All Seoul can - and should - do is ignore false reports, as chances are that the market or investors might know better than bureaucrats or journalists when reports are erroneous, intentional or not. If the adverse effects of incorrect articles are deemed too serious, the government ought to sue. Belated, emotional and amateurish retorts_such as trying to claim Korea's external liability problems are not worst but second worst in Asia, for instance - would only deepen suspicion, as if Seoul were concealing it until someone pointed it out abroad. A better approach is to make the nation's economy, along with its strength and weakness, known as it is, through constant contact with media people, local or foreign, and not only during a crisis like now but in "ordinary" times. Korean officials' handling of foreign journalists always seems to waver between the two extremes:They ignore - or avoid - cooperating with journalists' requests for coverage while showing excessive, nearly blind, acceptance of their stories. This is neither right nor normal. Officials say they would reinstate press officers exclusively for foreign media, a system that has long been gone since the nation escaped the Asia financial crisis. They may be necessary at least in two key ministries, each responsible for security and economic affairs. The reintroduced "foreign media spokesperson" should be more experienced in the mechanism of media than in English, as more than 90 percent of foreign correspondents operating in Seoul are Koreans or foreigners who can understand the Korean language. The Lee Myung-bak administration is notorious for its lack of communication with the people and media, favoring only friendly papers. As long as the governemtn fails to rectify its opaque media policy, bad press abroad is unlikely to diminish, as the foremost function of mdia is to point out shadiness and problems.