Kang Gi-yoon Campaign Committee Frames Report as "Pre-Election Scheme to Destroy Opposition Candidate"

Legal Action Taken Against KBS for Unilateral and Biased Reporting

Focus Placed Only on One-Sided Testimony from a Few Attendees

Majority of Attendees State, "The Claims Are Groundless"

The election campaign committee (hereinafter referred to as the campaign committee) for Kang Gi-yoon, People Power Party Candidate for Mayor of Changwon, announced on April 24 that it had immediately taken legal action in response to KBS Changwon's report on April 23 titled "Volunteer Group Received Entertainment...Kang Gi-yoon Support Group Distorted," defining it as an attempt to "destroy a leading opposition candidate." The committee claimed that the report was unilaterally and biasedly based on the remarks of only a few attendees, rather than the majority.

Kang Gi-yoon, People Power Party Candidate for Mayor of Changwon.
Photo by Kang Gi-yoon

According to the KBS Changwon report, attendee A stated in an interview, "At Korea Southern Power, they said they had prepared the meal themselves. They told us to eat before leaving. The president, the CEO, said so." However, according to the campaign committee's verification, most of the volunteer group members present at the time did not hear any such statement.

Furthermore, attendee B claimed, "I heard at the office that (the meal) had been prepared and that we should be treated well. Kang Gi-yoon said so." However, most attendees consistently stated that no such remarks were made at all.

The campaign committee stated, "KBS highlighted only the testimony of a few individuals with questionable credibility, maliciously framing it as if the candidate had directly violated election law."

The committee further countered, "KBS Changwon portrayed Candidate Kang as having a deep connection with these organizations, simply because he attended a tour of Korea Southern Power and a Changwon event organized by the head of the 'Group Loving Kang Gi-yoon.'"

The campaign committee expressed deep suspicion about the sequence of events, noting that as soon as the KBS Changwon report aired at 7:00 p.m. on April 22, a specific left-wing YouTube channel rapidly amplified and reproduced the story in detail around 10:00 p.m., followed closely by a statement from the Democratic Party's Gyeongnam Provincial Chapter.

The committee particularly emphasized, "It is difficult to see this series of events as mere coincidence. We cannot help but suspect there may be a large-scale political conspiracy behind these actions, aimed at eliminating a leading conservative candidate ahead of the election."

In response to what it called this unilateral and biased reporting, Kang Gi-yoon’s campaign committee stated that it is taking strong action, including: filing an objection with the Election Reporting Review Committee of the Press Arbitration Commission; requesting a review by the Election Broadcast Review Committee; and filing an objection with the Internet Election Reporting Review Committee of the National Election Commission.

The campaign committee pledged, "We will respond firmly to the end in order to protect citizens' right to know from the tyranny of media that has lost its sense of fairness, and to ensure electoral fairness."

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