[2020 National Audit] KBS President: "Defamation Lawsuit Over Media-Police Collusion Report Is Not Reasonable"

Yang Seung-dong, President of KBS, is reporting on business operations at the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee's audit of the Korea Broadcasting System and the Korea Educational Broadcasting System held in Yeouido, Seoul on the morning of the 15th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] Yang Seung-dong, president of KBS, claimed that the so-called 'media collusion false report' that occurred in July had already been apologized for, and that the damages lawsuit filed by Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon is "not reasonable."

On the 15th, during the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee's audit, in response to a question from Heo Eun-ah, a member of the People Power Party, President Yang said, "(The false report) was a professional negligence. Although we apologized through the news the next day, demanding such a large amount of damages is not reasonable." Regarding the theory that a 'third party' was involved in the media collusion false report, when asked who the related person was, he only replied, "Because of source protection..."

Earlier, KBS News 9 reported on July 18 that it had obtained a recording between Prosecutor Han and former Channel A reporter Lee Dong-jae, claiming that Lee had conspired to raise suspicions about Yoon Si-min, director of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, related to the SillaJen stock manipulation by meeting Prosecutor Han in Busan. However, the full transcript of the meeting between Prosecutor Han and Lee, released by Lee, did not contain the related content. KBS admitted the false report and apologized within a day, then deleted the report.

Representative Heo pointed out that due to the report, KBS suffered huge losses, receiving a legal sanction warning and a minus 1 point from the Korea Communications Standards Commission. He said, "KBS barely maintained its status as a broadcaster by receiving conditional re-approval after scoring below 4 points in 2017," adding, "It has become quite difficult in the year-end re-approval review." Representative Hwang Bo-seung-hee of the People Power Party also pointed out the related issue, claiming, "This is a case where someone outside had been directing the reporting direction for a long time and was eventually caught."

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