(VI) JOONGANG ILBO - SHERRIN, swimmer

Here is Sherrin's letter to the Joongang Ilbo, professionally requesting action for shoddy reporting:

Dear Sir or Madame,

Mr. Yang Seong Cheol on Jeju wrote an article about "The Jeju Big Swim."

The article had quite a lot of factual mistakes. For example, I graduated from the second haenyo school intake, not the first. There are other mistakes as well. While it is disappointing to see such sloppy reporting, much more seriously is the way The Jeju Big Swim was completely misrepresented to the Korean public.

The article states we are swimming to tell the world about the beauty of Jeju. This is a complete fabrication.

We are swimming as part of the The World Environment and Peace Summer School to be held on Jeju in July and August. We are swimming as part of a campaign to raise environmental awareness and education.

Like many places Jeju's environment is under threat from pollution in the sea, plastic, car exhaust, overfishing, and so on. Our swim is about asking people to think more about their actions. Small things can make for big changes.

We would like to let people know the Jeju Big Swim is NOT to showcase Jeju's beauty, but to raise awareness and education about the environment.

Yours sincerely,
Sherrin Hibbard

-Steve