You will see a new CFE for this year.

All of the CFE executives and employees would like to extend our sincere greetings and best wishes for a Happy New Year to you, ardent and enthusiastic subscribers. We wish all of your dreams come true for the Year of the Tiger.

We will do our best to meet your expectations. The year of 2010 will be a watershed for the CFE. Since the establishment in 1997, the CFE has created a hub for liberal intellectuals and preached their articles and philosophy to the society. Most of the writings are a criticism of the government policies and misleading public opinions. We have also taught college students about the thought of the free market economic system.

Now, we're attempting a major change. We are moving into broadcasting from publishing. We're pursuing activism beyond our traditional area of research and education. Rather than staying with a given budget, we will actively raise funds to become a self-sustained and grass-rooted think tank. 

From the perspective, we're planning new businesses and activities. The biggest challenge is the broadcasting business. We will produce and distribute broadcasting contents that reflect the principle of market economy.

South Korean broadcasters are either extremely left-leaned or tainted with harmful populism. This is apparent when you compare them with the newspaper market. The newspaper industry is dominated by the big three mainstream newspapers –the Chosun Ilbo, the Joongang Ilbo and the Dong-A Ilbo. Left-wing newspapers such as the Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang Daily are minor. The result is a brutal choice by consumers. In contrast, voices representing the market economy are hardly heard in the broadcasting industry. They're far from what the consumers really want.

We should change it now. The entry of new broadcasters may affect the existing power structure but there is no guarantee that they would not follow the populist path. Given the limitation, we will come forward and open a new chapter. Many journalists in newspaper used to refer to our articles when they wanted to know the perspective of the market. The CFE will play the role in the broadcasting area.

For this end, we opened "Freenet News" (www.fntv.kr), an online broadcasting service, on December 1, 2009. It doesn't have much content enough to be called as a broadcaster but we will build our sources and programs in a steady manner.

In a preparation for the full broadcasting service, we plan to launch a story business. We have realized that the most difficult job is to make a story. An interesting story infused with the philosophy of freedom makes a good program. In this context, we plan to create a team for the story business, whose products are used not only for the Freenet but also distributed to other broadcasters.

The second project is fund raising. A free society can be achieved only with the efforts by the citizens who love freedom. Now, free citizens need to invest in freedom. We will make the CFE a grass-root think tank run by donations like the Heritage Foundation in the U.S., the Institute of Economic Affairs in the U.K., and the Fraser Institute in Canada. This would give our voice more power. Our fund-raising target is one billion won for this year. About 70 percent of the fund will be used to produce the Freenet programs and the rest for the cooperative activities with civil groups to promote the economic freedom. 

We will build closer ties with civil organizations and launch more joint activities and programs to preach the voice of freedom. When scattered, each group is hardly heard but when joining forces, we can make difference. That's why we plan to spend 30 percent of our funds in creating a grand association of the liberal camp. 

Each challenge is far beyond our capability. But they are the tasks that somebody must achieve in order to make a strong market economy in South Korea. We will take the initiative this year. There would be trials and errors as we're entering unchartered waters. We will not give up on any obstacles and go ahead.

This year, you and we will accomplish all the wishes. We wish you again the best luck for the new year.

Sincerely yours, Kim Jung-ho, on behalf of the CFE executives and employees.

By Kim Jung-ho / President of the Centre for Free Enterprises