Except for two newspapers (one in Korean and one in English) that the government owned or controlled and the state television network, ownership of the media was for the most part distinct from political or economic power. One exception was the conservative daily, Joongang Ilbo. Under the close oversight of its owner, the late Samsung Group founder and multimillionaire Lee Byung-chul, the paper and its affiliated TBC television network generally supported the Park government during the 1970s. Its relations with the government became strained after 1980, however, when Chun Doo Hwan forced TBC to merge with KBS. A journalists' strike at Joongang Ilbo in 1989, in one of many similar incidents at the major South Korean newspapers, won even greater management and editorial independence.