'Communist' label added to broadcaster's report about South Korean Nobel laureate

Published on October 16, 2024 at 07:26
3 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

After South Korean author Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature, a doctored screenshot of a France 24 report circulated in social media posts that falsely claimed the broadcaster labelled her a "communist". The segment's anchor told AFP the image was fabricated and the broadcaster did not link the author to communism in its report.

"French broadcaster announced 'Korean Communist' Han Kang won the Nobel prize," read the Korean-language caption of a purported screenshot from France 24 that was shared on Facebook on October 13, 2024.

The image shows a woman in a studio, with text along the bottom of the image that reads: "Korean Communist Han Kang honoured - Nobel Prize in Literature".

It was shared days after Han was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Swedish Academy described as her "intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life" (archived link).

She is the first Asian woman to receive the award out of 121 laureates.

While Han's win was widely celebrated in South Korea, her work was criticised by some users on right-wing social media forums for touching on sensitive political themes -- such as the pro-democracy Gwangju Uprising in May 1980 that was crushed by the country's military dictatorship (archived links here, here and here).

The event remains divisive, with some conservatives still condemning the uprising as a Communist-inspired rebellion backed by North Korea.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on October 15, 2024

The image was shared along similar claims elsewhere on Facebook here, here and here, as well as here on the far-right forum Ilbe.

France 24, however, did not describe Han as a "Korean Communist"; the purported screenshot has been doctored.

Altered screenshot

The host of the segment seen in the image, Genie Godula, told AFP that France 24 "absolutely did not have 'Korean Communist' in our strap" (archived link).

The image "was fabricated by someone else", she wrote in an email on October 15.

A keyword search on Google led to France 24's English-language report on Han's win, which was posted on YouTube on October 10 (archived link).

The doctored image corresponds to the 3:38 mark of the video report.

The strap in the report reads, "South Korean author Han Kang honoured - Nobel Prize in Literature".

Below is a screenshot comparison between the doctored image (left) and the corresponding frame from the France 24 report (right):

Screenshot comparison between the doctored image (left) and the corresponding frame from the France 24 report (right)

The word "Communist" is neither displayed on screen nor mentioned in the segment.

The same video report was embedded on France 24's official website (archived link).

A text report about Han's Nobel win on France 24's website also makes no mention of communism (archived link).

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