In the National Assembly Science and ICT Committee's First Work Report, Ruling and Opposition Parties Clash Over 'Power Struggle'... "Call the KBS President" Dispute

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] On the 28th, when the government work report was scheduled, the ruling and opposition parties engaged in a power struggle from the start over issues such as the submission of bills and the attendance of KBS President Yang Seung-dong at the National Assembly Science, Technology, Broadcasting and Communications Committee plenary meeting.

Park Sung-joong, the floor leader of the United Future Party, raised the issue immediately after the opening of the meeting through a procedural speech, saying, "It makes no sense to submit bills when the bill subcommittee has not even been formed," and "It should be done after agreement between the floor leaders. What is this?" He claimed it was an arbitrary operation that did not consider the opposition party.

Regarding the so-called controversy over collusion between prosecutors and media, he pointed out, "I told the ruling party floor leader and the chairman of the Science, Technology, Broadcasting and Communications Committee that KBS President Yang should be summoned, but there has never been any consultation." He added, "KBS is an agency under the jurisdiction of the Science, Technology, Broadcasting and Communications Committee. If necessary, they must be called. This is not even a matter for agreement between the two floor leaders. It is absolutely unacceptable to exclude a case of public suspicion from the work report."

On that day, papers reading "Thorough investigation into KBS·MBC manipulated broadcasts" were attached to the seats of Park and other United Future Party lawmakers.

Park Dae-chul, also from the same party, pointed out that a part of the transcript related to Channel A's report was posted and then deleted on KBS's internal bulletin board, and demanded, "We request KBS to submit the full transcript of the phone call by this afternoon before the meeting. It is necessary for a thorough investigation." The United Future Party also cited KBS's failure to broadcast national disaster alerts during last week's heavy rain in the southern region as a problem.

On the other hand, Cho Seung-rae, the floor leader of the Democratic Party, rebutted the United Future Party's claim that there was no prior agreement. Cho said, "I regret the United Future Party's claim that it was conducted arbitrarily and unilaterally," and explained, "I believe that we agreed with the chairman to simultaneously conduct the work report, bill submission, and subcommittee formation on the 28th, and if there are items approved in the subcommittee, to approve them on the 30th."

Regarding the attendance of the KBS president, he responded, "I said at the time of the call that it was inappropriate," and "It is not that there was no consultation. It is not a refusal to consult, but I thought it was inappropriate for President Yang to attend at this point, so I did not agree." He emphasized, "If the National Assembly starts to protest individual reports of broadcasting companies, it undermines the independence and autonomy of public broadcasting," and "(KBS's erroneous reports) should be left to the Korea Communications Standards Commission and the prosecution."

Democratic Party lawmaker Woo Sang-ho also pointed out, "Having called KBS and MBC presidents after more than 20 years in politics is out of the blue. Have we ever called them during work reports?" and "When we were the opposition, if there was something to protest, we went to individual broadcasters, but we never called the heads of media companies."

As clashes between ruling and opposition lawmakers continued, Committee Chairman Park Kwang-on mediated to proceed with floor leader consultations and adjusted the schedule to advance the government work report, which was originally planned after the submission of bills. On that day, the Science, Technology, Broadcasting and Communications Committee was conducting work reports from the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Communications Commission, and the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, including the submission of bills.

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