Met with Media Leaders, Opposition Party Says "Yoon Government Undermines Public Broadcasting Neutrality... Will Consider Measures"

"Yoon's Vulgar Language Controversy, Violation of Freedom of Expression"
Calls for Legislation to Prevent YTN Privatization Policy and Others

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] The opposition party criticized the infringement of press freedom under the current administration during a meeting with representatives of journalists. They emphasized the need for legal amendments to prevent acts that undermine the fairness and neutrality of the media, such as the controversy over President Yoon Seok-yeol's profanity incident coverage and the policy to sell YTN shares.

On the 13th, the Democratic Party of Korea held a 'Journalists' Meeting for Press Freedom and Broadcasting Independence' at the National Assembly, discussing measures to guarantee media fairness with journalist representatives.

At the meeting, Yoon Chang-hyun, chairman of the National Union of Mediaworkers, pointed out regarding the ruling party's criticism of MBC for reporting on President Yoon's 'profanity controversy,' "Many journalists are covering the scene, but the controversy over press freedom triggered by the president's vulgar language scandal still shows that freedom of expression in South Korea remains vulnerable and can be shaken at any time."

He added, "Working journalists have experienced a long and arduous struggle to secure the freedom to speak and express themselves about the foundation of South Korean democracy and its long history of democratization movements," and said, "Current democracy is also on that path. I am here to earnestly request that we stop further infringements on freedom of expression by the media and break the historical cycle of broadcasting freedom disputes that recur every five years with regime changes."

He continued, "We requested open meetings for serious discussions on this issue not only with the Democratic Party but also with the Justice Party and the People Power Party. While the Justice Party responded, the People Power Party did not," urging, "We call on the People Power Party to join this discussion."

Vice President Ahn Hyung-jun of the Korea Journalists Association criticized the privatization rumors concerning YTN. Ahn said, "Attempts to take public media away from the people are not limited to MBC," adding, "Efforts to privatize YTN and budget cuts for Traffic Broadcasting (TBS) are happening in various forms but are essentially the same. The appointment of public media presidents and directors should be done through a citizen recommendation committee to return them to the people."

In response, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, said, "The core of press freedom is independence, and the goal is fairness," adding, "Everyone talks about a fair reporting system for media freedom, but strangely, opinions change whenever the ruling party changes," and stated, "I believe systems should be designed to prepare for the worst-case scenarios."

Regarding privatization, he pointed out, "Suddenly, the issue of privatizing MBC and YTN has flared up," calling it "a very serious attempt that undermines the neutrality and independence of public media and public broadcasting."

He emphasized his commitment to pushing forward related legislation. Seo Young-kyo, a Supreme Council member and head of the Democratic Party's Anti-Privatization Task Force, also said at the meeting, "We will make further efforts in the National Assembly to pass the bill to improve the governance structure of public broadcasting."

Han Min-soo, spokesperson, said at a briefing after the meeting, "Representatives of professional organizations urged the prompt submission of the bill to improve the governance structure of public broadcasting and also demanded swift processing of anti-privatization legislation," adding, "Leader Lee and the attending lawmakers said they would carefully review and work hard on these matters."

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