Lee Jun-seok "Mandatory Minimum 10 Years Broadcasting Experience for Public Broadcaster Presidents... Complete Block on Parachute Appointments"

Consent System for Appointment of Public Broadcaster Presidents
Reform New Party's First Policy Disclosure on Abolishing KBS License Fee and More

On the 8th, Lee Jun-seok, chairman of the Reform New Party (tentative name) Policy Committee, unveiled the public broadcasting president appointment consent system and the abolition of KBS license fees as the party's first policies.

Chairman Lee held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Office that morning and stated, "After the 22nd general election, the Reform New Party will push for amendments to the Broadcasting Act to implement a president appointment consent system when appointing presidents of public broadcasters KBS, MBC, and EBS."

He added, "The veto power over president appointments should not belong to the president, who only considers the pros and cons based on the tone of the news, nor to the ruling or opposition parties, but to the broadcasting workers to ensure legitimacy," and explained, "We will mandate that public broadcasting presidents have more than 10 years of broadcasting experience to fundamentally block parachute appointments of presidents with no job experience."

Lee Jun-seok, Chairman of the Reform New Party's Platform and Policy Committee, is holding a press conference related to the Reform New Party's platform and policies at the National Assembly Communication Hall on the 8th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Chairman Lee also said, "Regarding the funding of KBS and EBS, we will abolish the license fees and replace them with tax support equivalent to the total amount of license fees and adjustments to retransmission fees," emphasizing, "The role of public broadcasters must be preserved. Through active tax support, accounting transparency can be secured."

He further added, "If KBS receives tax support, we will demand that all external hosts, who were at the center of controversies over news bias, be replaced entirely by capable and promising internal personnel."

He also demanded that external hosts, who were at the core of KBS's news bias controversy, be completely replaced by internal staff. He explained, "I want to point out that in the process of KBS competing with other private broadcasters in ratings and listenership, reliance on external hosts for short-term results contributed to unnecessary controversies over their appointment process and treatment, which in turn fueled disputes over news bias."

Additionally, Chairman Lee promised to significantly ease the unreasonable regulations imposed on existing broadcasters compared to online video services (OTT·Over the Top) and to remove various advertising regulations applied to broadcasters. He said, "To break the reality where the broadcasting industry is stifled by regulations and becomes a field of political conflict, the Reform New Party will continue to thoughtfully consider and present opinions going forward."

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