Editorial Who Records the Region

Suwon Ilbo has reached its 37th anniversary. It has been thirty-seven years since the first issue was published on September 30, 1989. We will keep the words of commemoration brief and use this space for a question rather than self-celebration: Who records the region?

Among the 226 basic local governments across the nation, there are not a few places where there is not a single resident reporter. City hall briefing rooms are crowded, but the fields of towns and villages are empty. News created in Seoul fills pages and screens, and portal algorithms select only stories that generate clicks. In that gap, agendas like local bus route reorganization, school consolidation, sewage treatment plant expansion, and local government budget reviews quietly disappear. They generate no page views, yet these are the stories closest to residents' lives.

Regions that are not recorded are forgotten, and in forgotten regions, power goes unwatched. This vacuum, which media scholars call a "news desert," is not merely a crisis of the news industry. It is a crisis of local autonomy. When there is no one asking where budgets are spent, for whom ordinances are made, and on what criteria appointments are decided, autonomy becomes mere form. The reason local newspapers are necessary is not nostalgia. Local newspapers are the infrastructure necessary for the system of local autonomy to function.

Oversight and affection are not opposites

We wish to clarify our position at this point. Suwon Ilbo is neither the public relations outlet of the local government, nor is it its enemy. We inquire into and question municipal and provincial affairs not because we hate the region, but because we wish it to prosper. We write that good work is good work, and we keep asking about matters that warrant answers until we get them. Without affection, there is no reason to exercise oversight. This is why this newspaper has remained in Suwon and the Gyeonggi region for 37 years.

An anniversary is enough for one day. Starting tomorrow, the work of a regular weekday begins again. Sitting in conference rooms, requesting documents, taking down residents' words at the scene. It is unglamorous work, but someone must do it, and if no one does, the entire region falls into darkness. Suwon Ilbo, instead of celebrating 37 years, poses a question for the 38th year: Who records the region? Our answer is tomorrow's edition.