With 'Protecting Kim Eo-jun'... Lee Jun-seok Says "Media Reform is Protecting Eo-jun"

Former Supreme Council Member of the People Power Party, Lee Jun-seok.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jumi Lee] Former Supreme Council Member of the People Power Party, Lee Jun-seok, criticized the ruling party for defending Kim Eo-jun, the host of TBS's "Kim Eo-jun's News Factory," amid controversies over bias and appearance fees, calling it "media reform as protection of Eo-jun."

On the 25th, Lee shared an article on his Facebook stating that ruling party lawmakers are pushing for a system to prevent Kim from being removed from the broadcast, and made this comment.

Lee pointed out, "Prosecutor reform is essentially protection of Cho Kuk, and media reform is essentially protection of Eo-jun."

He continued, "The level of deification is 'Can't lose Kim Eo-jun, can't lose democracy, can't lose the Republic of Korea,'" adding, "If the claim is that being number one in listenership is the basis for trust and protection, then broadcasts that rank number one in Super Chat worldwide would be true media."

Previously, after allegations of Kim's bias and appearance fee controversies surfaced, a confrontation between the ruling party defending Kim and the opposition criticizing him has continued.

Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Min-seok defended Kim on the 23rd, saying, "News Factory was at the center of the candlelight history at the scene where the world changed?from exposing state corruption, the candlelight revolution, impeachment, regime change, to the imprisonment of two former presidents?and achieved an astonishing record of 7 million peak listeners."

Woo Won-shik, a Democratic Party lawmaker running for party leader, also demanded on the 22nd, "The People Power Party and the Board of Audit and Inspection must immediately stop the 'Kim Eo-jun killing' actions."

On the other hand, People Power Party lawmaker Park Sung-joong criticized, "Broadcasting's life is fairness and neutrality, so having someone so loose-tongued as a host is problematic," and pointed out, "Kim is receiving 2 million won, twice the upper limit of appearance fees, without a contract, and there are even suspicions of tax evasion through a one-person corporation."

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