Transparent Society Awardees 2016

Since 2001, TI-Korea has been awarding various groups, organizations, and individuals who demonstrated brave and laudable acts by practicing virtues of honesty, integrity, and transparency. In general, we award recipients who fight against corrupt practices in various sectors in the Korean society.

Transparency Society Award is being given annually by TI-Korea with special or well-established prizes provided or donated by various institutions that are supportive to our anti-corruption activities. Usually, the awarding ceremony takes place in the first week of December. Various individuals, business representatives, government officials, civil society organization representatives, media/reporters, among other guests, may partake in this celebration.

The recipients of the award have to pass through a series of the selection process to be conducted by TI-Korea staff and board members. A research or study on the background of the recipient and the nature of the anti-corruption action will be conducted as points for qualifications or criteria to be considered for the award.

So far, the most common recipients of the awards were those who divulged irregularities in both public and private sectors. ‘Whistleblowing’ is the most popular expression being used recently to describe this honorable act, especially when talking about anti-corruption issues.

2016 Awardees

 1. Park, Young-goon

Mr. Park is a professor at Myongji University, Seoul, who publicly exposed irregularities at his university. Due to his brave and laudable act, the university’s president was later dismissed, that made the university’s new administration more transparent. Professor Park’s action made him a recipient of TI-Korea’s 2016 award.

2. Jeon, Phil-geun

As an expert and an independent journalist, Mr. Jeon was the first one to cover various corruption and bribery scandals both at private universities (such as the University of Suwon, Konkook University, Duksung Women’s University and Gyeongju University) and educational institutes (e.g. after-school programs). His investigations and reports have been a great contribution towards more transparency and integrity in the private schooling system in Korea.

3. Jeon, Gyeong-won

Mr. Jeon is a teacher at Hana Academy, a private High School in Seoul, who reported the organized score manipulation at his school to the Seoul City Council in August 2015. In order to maintain the gender ratio, Hana Academy allegedly offered additional points in the admission exams to male students, while academically skilled female students lost their chances of being admitted. Mr. Jeon’s action confirms that public disclosure of such illicit acts and establishing fair and transparent selection process of students is necessary for stirring up public opinion. Due to his report to Seoul City Council, Mr. Jeon has lost his job as a teacher at Hana Academy. 

4. Kim, Ue-gyeom; Ryu, Lee-geun; Pang, Jun-ho; Ha, Oh-yong

These awardees are journalists at the daily newspaper “The Hankyoreh” and have been selected because they were the first ones to report that Mir Foundation and K-Sports Foundation are related to the scandals involving Ms. Choi Soon-sil, a close friend of President Park Geun-hye. The recipients have also contributed greatly to discovering the present reality of the government-run institutions related to Choi Soon-sil’s scandals.

5. JTBC (TV Channel) News Department II

The recipients have been selected as awardees for being the first ones to reveal that Choi Soon-sil is meddling with state affairs through the contents of the PC tablet discovered. Specifically, the tablet computer contained files of major presidential speeches and other important national security and diplomatic documents. The continuous coverage of the case reveals the deeper reality of this corruption scandal.