The Democratic Party of Korea Suncheon Regional Committee Urges Withdrawal of KBS Suncheon Broadcasting Station Closure

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] The Democratic Party of Korea's Suncheon Regional Committee has called for the withdrawal of the closure of the KBS Suncheon Broadcasting Station.

On the morning of the 15th at 10 a.m., about 20 Democratic Party city and provincial council members, including elected National Assembly member So Byung-chul, Suncheon YMCA, Suncheon Environmental Movement Federation, Gwangyang Bay Green Federation, Palma Cheongbaekri Cultural Foundation, KBS viewer committee members, Cheon Ha-ram, the organizational chairman of the United Future Party, Lee Myung-ok of the Minsheng Party, Kim Mi-ae of the Justice Party, and independent lawmaker Lee Bok-nam, held a press conference at the main gate of Suncheon City Hall, demanding, "Public broadcaster KBS must withdraw the closure of regional broadcasting stations that undermine the sovereignty of local viewers."

Elected member So Byung-chul said, "I am grateful that various civic group leaders and members from the United Future Party, Minsheng Party, Justice Party, and independents have joined in solidarity," adding, "I hope the withdrawal of the closure of the KBS Suncheon Broadcasting Station, which ignores viewer sovereignty, will definitely be achieved."

Following this, Kim Hyun-duk, chairman of Suncheon YMCA, said, "We have done our best so far but have not produced results," and added, "If several council members join forces, we will work to realize the will of the Suncheon citizens."

Kim Hyung-seok, chairman of the Suncheon KBS labor union, appealed, "Please use the power of local citizens who pay the license fee to stop KBS's decision that ignores their demands."

According to the press release, in July of last year, public broadcaster KBS announced the "KBS Emergency Management Plan 2019," citing business loss compensation and profit and loss improvement, which included eliminating TV programming, production, and transmission functions of seven regional broadcasting stations, including the Suncheon Broadcasting Station. This was strongly criticized as an act that disregards and mocks viewers by simply turning regional broadcasting stations into relay facilities and ultimately closing them.

It was also stated that the KBS Suncheon Broadcasting Station has served as the eyes and ears of local residents for over 60 years, targeting six cities and counties in the eastern Jeonnam region, and is a representative regional broadcasting station generating tens of billions of won in surplus through annual license fee collections of about 10 billion won. Despite this reality, the management's incompetence and reckless management leading to deficits being resolved by closing regional broadcasting stations was called "utterly absurd."

Therefore, the Democratic Party of Korea's Suncheon Regional Committee strongly urged the immediate withdrawal of KBS's decision to close regional broadcasting stations, which deprives local viewers of their "right to know," infringes on viewer sovereignty, and exacerbates information asymmetry between regions, and requested the Korea Communications Commission to thoroughly review KBS's application for modification approval.

Meanwhile, this event urging the withdrawal of the Suncheon Broadcasting Station closure was organized after Kim Hyung-seok, head of the Suncheon KBS labor union branch, urgently requested help from elected National Assembly member So Byung-chul on the 13th, with participation from all Democratic Party city and provincial council members and civic groups.

Separately, elected member So Byung-chul stated, "Although the procedure has already progressed considerably and time is urgent, I will do my best, in cooperation with other regional elected members such as Kim Won-i of Mokpo, to submit a joint petition urging the withdrawal of the closure to the relevant government departments."

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