[2] Korean liberals and progressives criticize Chojoongdong primarily because of their conservative-biased editorial stances and doing business in a collusive and surreptitious manner.
(the JoongAng Ilbo, however did not exist during the Japanese occupation),[9] as well as their collaboration with domestic authoritarian rule before the democratic transition in 1987.
Jung Woon-hyun accused the three newspapers of censoring WikiLeaks-related articles that is alleged to have exposed negative issues under President Lee Myung-bak's administrative influence.
[12][13] Opponents believe that CJD have joined with the business world through strategic marriages,[14][15] making their articles biased towards capital.
There was some criticism that three CJD newspapers simultaneously presented articles about the danger of negative Free Trade Agreement rumors on the South Korea–United States Free Trade Agreement among South Korean social network service users, particularly on Twitter.
However, in 2008, during the mad cow protests over US beef imports that were feared to cause variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, the major newspapers showed a favourable attitude towards market opening and reported negatively on the Candlelight Revolution.