While the ruling party is pressing for the resignation of the Korea Communications Commission Chairman, there are growing concerns about shaking up public broadcasting as conservative groups complain and request an audit against the KBS president. It is pointed out that the first target among public broadcasters is KBS, reminiscent of the ‘Jeong Yeon-ju incident’ 14 years ago.
Conservative groups inside and outside KBS have recently taken legal action to lead the resignation of the Korea Communications Commission Chairman and KBS president for about a month. On the 20th of last month, the KBS and MBC minority unions requested a public audit against KBS President Kim Eui-cheol and CEO Nam Young-jin, for example. In the process of requesting the appointment of President Kim by the board of directors, he neglected his duties, such as failing to verify documents properly, and President Kim cited eight reasons, including the reason that President Kim unfairly hired reporters who had worked at KBS in the past as the head of the news department during his former president’s time. .
A week later, on the 27th, again, the KBS and MBC minority unions filed a complaint with the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office against the chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, Han Sang-hyeok, for violating the Broadcasting Act. It was argued that Chairman Han emphasized “restoration of journalism functions such as media criticism” at the 2019 terrestrial presidents meeting, and demanded to deal with ‘COVID-19 fake news’ at the general meeting in 2020.
On the 4th of this month, a second public audit was requested against Chairman Han Sang-hyeok and President Kim Eui-cheol. The reasons were that the KBS Truth and Future Committee, which President Kim participated in during his former president’s time, looked into employee e-mails, and that Chairman Han had neglected his duties due to poor management of KBS regional broadcasting.
Movements of the Audit Office and investigative agencies were also detected. The Board of Audit and Inspection demanded that KBS and the Board of Directors submit an explanation to the audit requests raised by these organizations, and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency launched an investigation into the previous complaint against President Kim by the KBS Labor Union. On the 30th of last month, the KBS Labor Union made a welcome stance with the titles ‘Breaking News for KBS National Audit Request by the Board of Audit and Inspection’ and ‘The Board of Audit and Inspection, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Full-scale Audit and Investigation’. At the same time, the news that the Board of Audit and Inspection had put more personnel into the KCC’s regular audit compared to the previous audit was reported through various media at once.
Coincidentally, the series of procedures accelerated after Kwon Seong-dong, floor leader of the People’s Power, who is counted as ‘Yun Hak-kwan’ (a key official on the side of President Yoon Seok-yeol), called for the resignation of the Korea Communications Commission. On the 16th of last month, floor leader Kwon argued that “those who do not agree with the president’s political philosophy or state affairs tasks (Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission and the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commissioner)” should resign “in terms of political morality”.
Passport pressure, accusations against conservative groups, audits and investigations… Jung Yeon-joo’s case overlapped
The three beats: pressure from passports to resign, conservative groups’ audit requests and accusations, and the movement of the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) and investigative agencies largely overlap with the process of dismissal of KBS president Jeong Yeon-joo in 2008.
In March of that year, Shim Jae-cheol, senior vice-president of the Grand National Party, blatantly put pressure on him, saying, “KBS president Jeong Yeon-joo is the number 0 resignation.” And in May of that year, a former KBS executive filed a accusation against Jeong Yeon-joo, president of the company for breach of trust. The reason was that KBS, which was in litigation with the National Tax Service, received a refund of less than the actual refundable amount after mediation at the appeals court and caused damage.
Conservative groups (National Action Headquarters) and New Right-oriented groups, in which major GNP figures participated, requested a public audit of President Jeong on the grounds of poor management, abuse of personnel rights, and left-biased broadcasting. The Board of Audit and Inspection immediately launched a special audit on KBS and recommended that President Jung be fired within two months.
The biggest difference from now is that the Korea Communications Commission was headed by Chairman Choi Si-jung, a close aide to President Lee Myung-bak at the time. Chairman Choi, who had raised concerns from the media, civil society, and academia before his appointment, met with then KBS Chairman Kim Geum-soo in May, when pressure to resign as president Chung was strong, and said, ‘The decline in the Lee Myung-bak government’s approval rating is due to KBS’ broadcasting and because of President Jeong Yeon-joo, who keeps his seat. He is a person who caused a stir when the facts of what he said became known.
After that, in August, KBS Passport directors decided on a proposal for dismissal of President Jung, and requested police forces to prevent KBS members and citizens who opposed it. At the time, a number of PDs and reporters who resisted the union’s demand for the resignation of President Jeong Yeon-joo formed the ‘KBS Employee Action to Defend Public Broadcasting’ and blocked it, but the proposal for dismissal was passed. On August 8, 2008, the so-called ‘8.8 Incident’, which is considered a representative case of the dark age of public broadcasting, President Lee Myung-bak dismissed President Jung the next day.
At that time, the dismissal was judged unfair by both the court and past history investigation bodies. Former President Jeong, who filed a lawsuit to cancel his dismissal, won the trial including the first trial. In the same year, a final ruling was also made that the prosecution’s indictment of President Jung’s breach of trust was unfair. The Ministry of Justice’s Prosecution’s Past History Committee acknowledged that the prosecution’s indictment was unreasonable in 2019 and came to recommend an apology from the Prosecutor General, who suffered damage from the wrongful prosecution.
Koh Dae-young, president of the company, was dismissed… “Different demands from members and government intervention”
Organizations that are demanding the resignation of the Korea Communications Commission Chairman and the KBS president claim that they are ‘naeronambul’ with voices concerned about a return to the past. In the Moon Jae-in administration, after the change of government, the KBS president was dismissed and a new president was appointed. On the 5th, when seven media and civic groups, including the media union, held a press conference to condemn the people in front of the power of the people, the KBS Labor Union mentioned the case of firing Kang Gyu-hyung, former KBS director, and said, “Review and reflect on the documents seized by the Moon Jae-in government and reflect on them. I hope you will have time to self-reflect.”
In fact, in the case of former director Kang Gyu-hyung, he was dismissed after Moon Jae-in took office, but he finally won the case in the litigation for dismissal. Although there was a problem of corporate card misappropriation discovered by the Board of Audit and Inspection, the intention was that it was not an issue that would lead to dismissal. It is also true that after the reorganization of the KBS board of directors called ‘Women’s University Yaso’, President Ko Dae-young was dismissed. However, it is pointed out that the case of former President Koh and former President Jeong should not be equated with this case.
In the case of former president Ko Dae-young, strong opposition from KBS members for violating broadcasting independence and autonomy was prolonged until his dismissal was pursued. In August 2017, the KBS Reporters Association began refusing to produce, and in September both the KBS headquarters and the KBS labor union went on strike. It was a time when the demand for president election without political intervention was rising as cases of passport intervention including the Blue House were revealed late in the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations. After Koh was dismissed, the KBS Board of Directors proposed to the president the appointment of a president candidate who had undergone evaluation by the Citizens’ Participation Group (later the Citizens’ Participation Group).
Kim Seo-joong, a former director of KBS, and director of the Citizens’ Alliance for Democratic Press (Professor at Sungkonghoe University) drew a line saying, “Even if they are homomorphic in appearance, they are not the same in essence.” Director Kim said, “The fact that the former administration did not institutionalize (prevention of political interference in public broadcasting) deserves criticism,” said Kim. didn’t The government did something that many members of the broadcasting company did not want.” “To see the same thing except for that variable is illogical thinking”.
Regarding the current situation, Director Kim said, “The most worrying thing is the change of mind or the change of mind. “I don’t think the appointment will happen,” he said.
Jeon Gyu-chan, co-representative of the Citizens’ Coalition for Media Reform (Professor at the Korea National University of Arts) said, “I hope that the current political circle will judge calmly whether it is politically advantageous to try to control the representatives of public broadcasters or media companies. I don’t think it was whether it was effective or politically advantageous in the previous regime,” he said.
