When Hwang Woo-Suk was lying about cloning humans, his connections in the government allowed him to suppress the story by putting pressure on the network to cancel the second episode of "Producer's Note" that would have aired the rest of the allegations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_affair
When the MV Sewol capsized a couple miles off the coast with 300 children actively drowning, the corporate control of the news channels allowed them to suppress the truth of the event, like how there was zero attempts at any rescue, and near zero survivors of passengers. Instead, the news spent a day reporting that all 300ish students had been rescued.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_MV_Sewol
South Korea is controlled by just a few Chaebols and that includes its news media. The president during the MV Sewol incident for example was ousted at least partially due to the kinds of corruption and non-democratic influences that were uncovered after the sinking.
When most media is produced, financed, owned, operated etc by a couple hegemons with aligning goals, I don't care what economic system you operate under, you do not have "free" media.