Kwon Seong-dong Points Out 'Public Broadcasting Biased Reporting' for Second Day... Strong Will in the Science and ICT Committee

"Full of Cases Favoring the Democratic Party"
Opposition: "Must Keep Silent Until Comprehensive Agreement Is Reached"
Uncertain Negotiations on National Assembly Organization Between Ruling and Opposition Parties

[Asia Economy Reporters Oh Ju-yeon, Kwon Hyun-ji] Kwon Seong-dong, the floor leader of the People Power Party, has once again raised the issue of unfair and biased reporting by public broadcasters. Since he expressed his determination not to lose the chairmanship of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee, attention is focused on whether the ruling and opposition parties will meet the deadline they set for the organization of the National Assembly.

Kwon Seong-dong, Acting Leader of the People Power Party, is speaking while holding the "20th Presidential Election Unfair Broadcasting National Monitoring Group Activity Report" at the party policy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 15th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

At the floor leaders' meeting held at the National Assembly on the 15th, Floor Leader Kwon held up two booklets and pointed out, "During the Moon Jae-in administration, controversies over unfair and biased reporting by public broadcasters never ceased. There are many cases where issues were handled in a biased manner favorable to the Democratic Party or where key points were selectively covered." He said, "These booklets compile MBC's unfair reports," adding, "(This alone) is a bundle." Regarding KBS, he criticized, "During last April's by-election, they aired 19 reports damaging candidate Oh Se-hoon's reputation over the Naegok-dong land allegations and actively broadcast false reports about saengtaetang (pollack soup), while candidate Park Young-sun was reported on mainly regarding her policy pledges."

He continued, "Public broadcasters have long lost the trust of the people due to the loss of neutrality and fairness," and raised his voice, saying, "It is morally reprehensible for the Democratic Party to talk about broadcasting control just because the administration has changed."

Later, in a meeting with reporters, Floor Leader Kwon said, "The chairmanships of the Science and Technology Committee and the Public Administration and Security Committee have traditionally been held by the ruling party. Since we do not have enough seats to hold both, we gave the Democratic Party the choice of one of the two." Regarding the possibility of a meeting that day, he said, "If the Democratic Party requests, I will meet," but added a condition, "They must take responsibility first for me to meet." The People Power Party emphasized that the Democratic Party had already circulated an ‘information letter (jirasi)’ as a reason for declaring a suspension of negotiations over the organization of the National Assembly, accusing the Democratic Party of breaking the principle of ‘all-at-once agreement and public announcement.’

Song Eon-seok, the senior deputy floor leader, said at the meeting, "The Democratic Party said they wanted to take the Public Administration and Security Committee and the Science and Technology Committee, and when things did not go their way, they shifted the blame for the breakdown onto us." The previous day, Floor Leader Kwon said on YTN, "We have tentatively agreed to change the name of the Special Committee on Criminal Investigation and Prosecution Reform to the Special Committee on Investigation and Judicial System Reform, to compose it 6:6, with the chairmanship going to the Democratic Party, but to handle agenda items by consensus," explaining that the letter had already been circulating even before the interview.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Democratic Party denied this as ‘false.’ After the emergency committee meeting in the morning, Democratic Party Floor Leader Park Hong-geun told reporters, "They received a single jirasi and assumed it came from the Democratic Party, but even if the jirasi is true, it is an unverified and unofficial document, and those responsible for official negotiations agreed to keep silent until the all-at-once agreement is reached, which should be respected," he countered.

On that day, the floor leaders of both parties had not yet scheduled a meeting. Floor Leader Park said, "We have not locked the door on negotiations themselves," but added, "The People Power Party needs to change its attitude."

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