‘Union Suppression’ Former MBC Presidents An Gwanghwan and Kim Janggyum... Suspended Prison Sentence Confirmed

Court: "Personnel decisions based on union activities... The offense is not minor"
‘Unfair labor practice’ Former News Director Choi Gwi-hwa fined 3 million won confirmed

Former MBC executives who were prosecuted for unfairly interfering with and suppressing labor union activities have been sentenced to suspended prison terms.

Supreme Court building.

The Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Ahn Cheol-sang) on the 12th upheld the original sentences of former MBC President Ahn Kwang-han and former President Kim Jang-gyeom, who were charged with violating the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, sentencing them to one year in prison with a two-year suspension and eight months in prison with a two-year suspension, respectively.

Additionally, the Supreme Court confirmed the original sentence of a 3 million won fine for former MBC News Director Choi Ki-hwa, who was prosecuted for tearing up a union report.

Former President Kim and others were tried on charges including unfair transfer of union members to control and interfere with the union, coercion to withdraw from the union, and exclusion of union members from promotions. It was investigated that on March 10, 2017, when Kim was CEO, he and then Vice President Baek Jong-moon isolated nine members of the MBC First Union outside the MBC headquarters by sending them to the New Business Development Center and the New Media Format Development Center.

Former President Ahn was charged with unfairly transferring 28 members of the MBC First Union on October 27, 2014, when he was CEO, along with then News Headquarters Chief Kim and others, and unfairly transferring a total of 37 union members nine times until March 2017.

The first and second trials stated, "The defendants made personnel decisions based on union activities, which negatively affected the public who watch the broadcasts, and the nature of the crime is by no means light," sentencing former President Ahn to one year in prison with a two-year suspension and former President Kim to eight months in prison with a two-year suspension. The Supreme Court also agreed with the lower courts' rulings.

Furthermore, former Director Choi was prosecuted for tearing up a report from the Democratic Broadcasting Practice Committee (MinSilWi) of the National Union of Mediaworkers MBC Headquarters in the news department meeting room on the 7th floor of the Broadcasting Center on September 9, 2015, and throwing it into the trash. After tearing up the MinSilWi report, Choi allegedly instructed reporters and producers (PDs) in the news department during an editorial meeting not to respond to calls from the MinSilWi secretary regarding matters related to coverage and reporting, constituting unfair labor practices.

The first trial found all charges guilty and sentenced him to a 5 million won fine, but the second trial ruled that only the act of tearing up the report constituted unfair labor practices and imposed a 3 million won fine. The Supreme Court upheld the second trial's decision.

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