Media Arbitration Commission, Agreement Reached on 'SBS, Mayor An Seung-nam and Guri City Rebuttal Publication'

SBS and 4 Other Sites Including Official Website Publish Rebuttal Statement Containing Mayor Ahn's Position

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] The conflict between An Seung-nam, mayor of Guri, and SBS over biased reporting has been temporarily resolved through the Korea Press Arbitration Commission's (KPAC) mediation agreement to publish a rebuttal report.

However, the report related to "Guri Mayor playing golf and dining at luxury restaurants ahead of a 3 trillion won project" did not reach a mediation agreement due to sharp disagreements between both parties and ongoing investigations by the prosecution and police.

The mayor's side stated, "Once the investigation results are out, we will prove our innocence through subsequent reporting claims to SBS according to the law," drawing further attention to how both sides will respond depending on the investigation outcomes.

According to Guri City on the 28th, following KPAC's mediation decision, SBS published rebuttal content reflecting the positions of Mayor An and Guri City in the form of a "rebuttal report" on its news website on the 22nd and 24th.

KPAC's mediation covered three cases: ▲ On the 3rd floor of Guri City Hall is the 'Mayor' father, and on the 2nd floor is the 'soldier' son ▲ Guri Mayor even hires relatives of close aides... no issues despite drunk driving ▲ Suspicious lease contracts starting with a building owned by an acquaintance of the Guri Mayor, among others.

The mayor's legal representative argued, "This mediation is a symbolic case where KPAC confirmed and corrected SBS's biased reporting by selectively presenting only one side's position," adding, "SBS failed to maintain fairness and objectivity in its reporting."

Mayor An stated, "SBS distorted the report through so-called selective editing, making it seem as if there were huge special favors or corruption hidden, which caused strong regret and serious image damage to Guri City," and added, "We will respond to fake news with a zero-tolerance principle until the end."

Earlier, KPAC held mediation sessions on March 17 and 19 and ordered SBS to fix a link to the rebuttal report on the initial screen of the 'SBS Digital News Lab' homepage for 48 hours by the 23rd and 26th, and also to post it at the bottom of the relevant articles.

Meanwhile, according to a report by Media Today last month, SBS was the broadcaster that received the most legal sanctions from the Korea Communications Standards Commission over the past three years.

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