section_path: Events/Orders for media blackout and cutting water and power to media outlets
section_name: Orders for media blackout and cutting water and power to media outlets
paragraph_text: Orders for media blackout and cutting water and power to media outlets
  
  National Fire Agency Commissioner Heo Seok-Gon testified before the National Assembly on 13 January 2025 that he received a phone call from Interior Minister Lee Sang-min to cooperate with the National Police Agency to cut off power and water to the offices of liberal-leaning media outlets and critics of Yoon's government, The Hankyoreh and the Kyunghyang Shinmun papers, and MBC TV station. Heo confirmed that ultimately, no action was taken.
  
  When prosecutors indicted Yoon for insurrection in February 2025, charges revealed that in addition to the three targets, Yoon ordered power and water to be cut for broadcaster JTBC and the pollster Flower Research. The indictment detailed Yoon directing the interior minister Lee at 10:30 p.m. on December 3 to halt power and water services to five organizations in order to instigate a “media blackout”. Lee called National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho at 11:34 pm on the evening martial law was declared to check on the actions taken by the police, before calling National Fire Agency Commissioner Heo at 11.37 pm to inform him that the police would be deployed to the organizations around midnight and to cooperate with the National Police Agency to shut off power and water. Heo passed along the orders to Deputy Commissioner Lee Yeong-pal, who then called Hwang Gi-seok, the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters, and asked him several times to cooperate with any requests from the National Police Agency in connection with the martial law proclamation. Heo himself reportedly called Hwang at 11:50 pm to check whether the National Police Agency had asked for help.