Democratic Party Science and ICT Committee Members "Concerns Over Transition Team's Takeover of KBS and Other Public Broadcasters"

Statement Released on the 24th: "Transition Committee Has No Precedent for Reporting to Public Broadcasters"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] On the 24th, members of the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea issued a statement criticizing the Presidential Transition Committee's request for a meeting with KBS and the Korea Broadcasting Culture Promotion Foundation, saying, "It is deeply concerning that they appear to be revealing intentions to seize control of public broadcasting even before the presidential term begins."

According to the Democratic Party on that day, the Yoon Seok-yeol Transition Committee requested a meeting with the Korea Broadcasting Culture Promotion Foundation, the major shareholder of KBS and MBC. The committee members explained that this was essentially an intention to receive business reports from KBS and MBC.

In the statement, the members said, "Regardless of formality, there has been no precedent of the Transition Committee calling public broadcasters or public broadcasting supervisory bodies to hear opinions or receive reports," adding, "Especially since public broadcasting has the unique characteristic of requiring firm political independence, it is very suspicious that the politically affiliated Transition Committee is calling them under the guise of a meeting."

They continued, "We cannot help but worry that the specters of broadcasting control from the past Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations are being revived," and added, "Above all, there is nothing in the 'Act on the Presidential Transition' (Article 7) regarding public broadcasting or public broadcasting supervisory bodies in the Transition Committee's duties."

The members also emphasized, "The People Power Party has openly tried to tame public broadcasting all along," stating, "During their time in power, they used every means to suppress and installed parachute presidents who suited their tastes, and during the Moon Jae-in administration, they habitually visited broadcasters such as KBS, MBC, and YTN to protest whenever there was coverage contrary to their stance."

They added, "President-elect Yoon said during his candidacy that the independence of public broadcasting was not important and that privatization was the answer, and he even pledged things like international news programming and mandatory historical drama production, which blatantly infringe on the editorial rights guaranteed by law," criticizing, "It was a reckless media intimidation to the extent that the Broadcasting Act, created to guarantee freedom and independence of broadcasting, was rendered meaningless."

They further stated, "The Transition Committee is an organization to facilitate the presidential transition and ensure stability in government operations," and "Its main tasks are to understand the organization, functions, and budget of government agencies, so calling in institutions that are not government agencies, especially public broadcasters whose fairness and independence are vital, to receive business reports is unacceptable."

Accordingly, they argued that public broadcasters should also refuse such unfair requests. The members said, "Public broadcasters, by the people, for the people, and of the people, should refuse the Transition Committee's arrogant meeting requests to protect the political independence of broadcasting themselves." They also urged, "The Transition Committee should abandon any intentions to seize control of broadcasting and proceed with preparations for the new government’s launch in accordance with fairness, common sense, law, and principles."

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