The Chosun Ilbo

The Chosun Ilbo (Hangul: 조선일보; hanja: 朝鮮日報; literally "Korea Daily") is one of the major newspapers in South Korea. With a daily circulation of over 1,800,000, the Chosun Ilbo has undertaken annual inspections since the Audit Bureau of Circulations was established in 1993. Chosun Ilbo and its subsidiary company, Digital Chosun operates the Chosun.com news website, which also publishes web versions of the newspaper in English, Chinese, and Japanese.

Chosun.com is ranked as the No.1 Korean news website by the Internet survey company Rankey.com.

History

The Chosun Ilbo Establishment Union was created in September 1919, and the Chosun Ilbo company was founded on March 5, 1920. The newspaper was critical of, and sometimes directly opposed to, the actions of the Japanese government during Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945).

On August 27, 1920, the Chosun Ilbo was suspended after it published an editorial heavily criticizing the use of excessive force by the Japanese police against Korean citizens. This was the first in a string of suspensions. On September 5, 1920, three days after the first suspension was lifted, the newspaper published an editorial entitled "Did the Japanese central governing body shut down our newspaper?" For this the Chosun Ilbo was given an indefinite suspension.