Image: Tokipul publishes an empty sheet to protest confiscation. Credit: Tokipul.
Since April 2024, 32 middle school students in the Eunpyeong-gu District of Seoul 서울 은평구 have been publishing Tokipul 토끼풀, an independent monthly newspaper with a circulation of 1k copies distributed to the four schools in the district. Over the past few months, this fledgling enterprise has become an unlikely rallying flag for freedom of the press.
Student editors at Tokipul claim that several school administrators have attempted to intervene in their editorial process, especially after the paper published an extra edition denouncing Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열’s December 3, 2024 coup attempt and featuring an interview with the local Assembly Member. In August, the local Sindo Middle School 신도 중학교 confiscated 300 copies of the paper and posters calling for student journalists to join.
Tokipul protested by publishing a blank page as the front page of the next edition. Mun Seong-ho 문성호, editor-in-chief and ninth-grader, said he demanded that the school explain the reason for confiscation but was stonewalled. With lobbying from student journalists, the Democratic Party 민주당 entered the fray, with party spokeswoman Park Gyeong-mi 박경미 대변인 calling for an investigation of the Seoul Metropolitan Board of Education 서울시 교육청.
Sindo Middle School issued an apology, but has continued to prohibit distribution of Tokipul on the grounds that the paper violates school rules. The Tokipul editorial board shot back that the school rules are themselves a holdover from the 1980s dictatorship, which sought to suppress political movements in schools. Meanwhile, Tokipul has attracted op-eds from numerous distinguished contributors cheering the paper on, including Justice Party chairman Kwon Yeong-guk 권영국 정의당 대표.
