Press Group "Hoban Construction, KBS Reporter Pre-Attachment... Must Stop Oppression"

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The Korea Journalists Association, the National Union of Mediaworkers, the KBS Journalists Association, and the Broadcast Journalists Federation stated on the 30th, "Hoban Construction must immediately withdraw its massive lawsuits and property seizure applications against KBS reporters."

In a statement released that day, these organizations said, "Hoban Construction filed a lawsuit demanding a correction and 1 billion KRW in damages against KBS ‘News 9’ for reporting on the Fair Trade Commission's investigation into allegations of preferential treatment in work allocation, naming not only KBS but also the reporters as defendants in the compensation claim," urging them to stop the ‘oppression’ of journalists. According to the associations, Hoban Construction even applied for provisional seizure of the reporters' assets.

They continued, "Hoban Construction and Chairman Kim Sang-yeol also filed a 500 million KRW damages lawsuit against the KBS ‘Sisa Planning Window - Who Deleted the Chairman’s Article?’ episode, which highlighted the deletion of critical articles, again including the reporters as defendants," criticizing, "Filing massive lawsuits naming reporters as defendants and even applying for provisional seizure of reporters' salaries is an oppressive act that calls their sanity into question."

These organizations stated, "Hoban Construction’s response appears to be a ‘strategic lawsuit to suppress public participation’ aimed at using KBS and its reporters as examples to block follow-up media investigations into the company," adding, "While they should demonstrate awareness and behavior befitting a major shareholder of a media company, their series of actions seriously raise doubts about whether Hoban Construction is qualified."

They emphasized, "If Hoban Construction does not retract its lowly behavior shown in responding to media reports, it will face continuous scrutiny and challenges from journalists and media workers questioning whether it is fit to own media outlets."

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