'TV Chosun Reauthorization Suspicion' Han Sang-hyuk, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, Indicted Without Detention

by Yoo Byeongdon

Published 02 May.2023 15:18(KST)

Han Sang-hyuk, the chairman of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) who is under suspicion regarding the TV Chosun reauthorization review, has been indicted without detention.

On the 3rd, the Criminal Division 5 of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Park Kyung-seop) announced that Han was indicted without detention the previous day on charges including obstruction of official duties by deception for not informing the standing commissioners of the KCC that the 2020 TV Chosun reauthorization review scores were manipulated to be lower than the actual scores.

The prosecution also indicted two review committee members who manipulated the evaluation scores after the fact without detention.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The prosecution has been investigating since last September after receiving audit materials containing allegations that the KCC deliberately lowered TV Chosun’s final evaluation score.

The prosecution believes that Yang, the former director of the Broadcasting Policy Bureau, and Cha, the former head of the Operations Support Division, who were working in the broadcasting policy department at the time, informed TV Chosun’s final evaluation score and requested score sheet modifications. It is also believed that Professor Yoon of Gwangju University, who chaired the review committee, conspired with them to manipulate the review results by lowering some item scores to failing levels.

In the 2020 review, TV Chosun scored a total of 653.39 points, surpassing the reauthorization threshold of 650 points out of 1000.

However, in the key review category of “public responsibility and fairness of broadcasting and the feasibility of realization, and regional, social, and cultural necessity,” TV Chosun received 104.15 points out of 210, falling below 50% and thus failing the category, resulting in conditional reauthorization.

Earlier, on March 24, the prosecution requested an arrest warrant for Chairman Han, but the court dismissed it, stating that “there is room for dispute regarding the main charges, and detention at this stage would excessively restrict the suspect’s right to defense.”