The 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

CITATION for Chang Chun-Ha

Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies
31 August 1962, Manila, Philippines

Amidst the cataclysmic events that have buffeted Korea during the past decade, CHANG CHUN-HA has devoted himself to enriching the "universe of discourse" that is fundamental to democratic progress. His vehicle has been Sasangge, or The World of Thought, a magazine born in the refugee-glutted seaport of Pusan in April 1953. Its purpose was not profit nor political power, but the enlightenment of the new generation of Koreans so that they might "discover the way" to building a freer society in harmony with their national traditions.

Sasangge has focused upon providing creative and stimulating reading for students and their professors; they held the promise of future leadership and afforded the opportunity for new competence in exploring national problems in the Korean language after 35 years of Japanese occupation and education.

A monthly publication of 400 or more pages, Sasangge is planned by an editorial board of 17 leading professors, lawyers and writers. The 21 staff members, most of whom are young Koreans educated after World War II, do extensive research in preparation of each issue. Novelists and poets who have been introduced through the pages of the magazine have contributed significantly to the new Korean literacy movement that marks a national awakening.

Although Sasangge is the product of effort by many talented Koreans, CHANG CHUN-HA's role as publisher has been crucial. During times of political uncertainty and pressure for official conformity he has unobtrusively and steadfastly worked to insure for the magazine an independence of expression and tolerance of competing views. In the process the magazine has repeatedly sacrificed prosperity and easy popularity. While admitting that he is not always practical in a business sense, CHANG sets an example of simplicity in his personal life that is the price of an easy conscience in an unsettled time.

The advancement of a people is measured more in the ideas that move them than by their material accomplishments. In emphasizing in Korean life a concern for the individual and his nourishment of mind, Sasangge and its publisher have made a singular contribution, indicative of the potential in journalism and literature to become a power for the public good.

In electing CHANG CHUN-HA to receive the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Literature, the Board of Trustees recognizes his editorial integrity in publication of a nonpartisan forum to encourage dynamic participation by intellectuals in national reconstruction.