Prosecutors to Investigate Whistleblower in Channel A 'Media-Political Collusion' Case Tomorrow... Kim Seo-jung, Standing Representative of MinEonRyeon, to Appear

On the morning of the 7th, representatives of the Citizens' Coalition for Democratic Media, who came to submit a complaint against Channel A reporter Lee and an unidentified prosecutor related to the MBC report on the 'collusion between prosecutors and media' at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, are responding to questions from the press. Photo by Kim Hyung-min

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] Regarding MBC’s report on the alleged ‘collusion between prosecutors and reporters,’ the prosecution, which is investigating the case where a civic group filed charges against a Channel A reporter and an unnamed prosecutor, will summon the accuser for questioning on the 21st.

The Citizens’ Coalition for Democratic Media, which filed charges against the Channel A reporter and others, announced on the 20th that Kim Seo-jung, the standing representative, will appear at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office Criminal Division 1 (Chief Prosecutor Jeong Jin-ung) at 9:30 a.m. on the 21st to undergo questioning as the accuser.

Earlier, on the 7th, the coalition filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office accusing Channel A reporter Lee and an unnamed prosecutor appearing in the MBC report of intimidation.

At that time, Representative Kim said, “It is unacceptable for a reporter to conduct an investigation through intimidation, and a media company that has such a reporter is practically as if it has received a death sentence as a journalistic entity,” adding, “I thought this was wrong and should never happen again, so I considered legal measures to impose sanctions and concluded that it was a clear case of intimidation, thus filing charges for intimidation.”

Additionally, Lee Dae-ho, a lawyer from the law firm Deoksu who drafted the complaint, pointed out, “It seems that the reporter could not have caused criminal disadvantages to former Representative Lee alone, and there was an open agreement with the prosecutor.”

Regarding the charges, Lawyer Lee said, “This case was not carried out to obtain financial gain, so considering that, we filed charges for intimidation,” and added, “Personally, coercion charges could also be applicable, but based on the current information, it was deemed insufficient, so only the definite intimidation charges were included in the complaint.”

On the 31st of last month, MBC reported that a Channel A legal team reporter approached the camp of former Value Investment CEO Lee Cheol, who is imprisoned in connection with the SillaJen case, demanding information about the misconduct of Yoo Si-min, chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation. The report also stated that during this process, the reporter boasted of his connections by playing a phone call with a chief prosecutor known to be a close aide of Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl.

Immediately after the report, the chief prosecutor mentioned in the recording stated that he was not the prosecutor in the recording.

When the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office reported this to the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry ordered supplementary investigations.

Tensions arose between Han Dong-su, head of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Inspection Department, and Prosecutor General Yoon over the commencement of an inspection into the chief prosecutor mentioned in the report.

Instead of an inspection, Prosecutor General Yoon ordered the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Human Rights Department to conduct a fact-finding investigation. On the 17th, after receiving an interim report on the investigation from Lee Soo-kwon, head of the Human Rights Department, Yoon instructed the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office to investigate the related allegations.

Following Yoon’s order, the case in which former Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Choi Kyung-hwan filed a defamation complaint against MBC and Ji Mo, known as the whistleblower in this case, at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office was transferred to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office and is being investigated together.

Meanwhile, regarding this case, the Action Alliance for Establishing the Rule of Law filed a defamation complaint under the Information and Communications Network Act against Choi Kang-wook, former Blue House Secretary for Public Office Discipline and newly elected proportional representative lawmaker of the Open Democratic Party, at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on the previous day.

On the 3rd, former Secretary Choi posted on his Facebook under the title ‘Summary of Channel A reporter’s remarks in letters and recordings,’ stating, “Representative Lee, even if it’s not true, say you gave money to Yoo Si-min to save yourself. Then it’s over.” Since this statement does not appear in the recordings and was proven false, it is considered to have damaged the reporter’s reputation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.