PPP Media Committee: 'Alleged Protest Call to KBS by DP Aide Constitutes External Pressure if True'

▲ People Power Party Lawmaker Kim Jang-kyom

Following allegations that an aide from a Democratic Party lawmaker's office placed a protest phone call to KBS over its reporting on suspicions surrounding Democratic Party Lawmaker Kim Seung-won, who withdrew his nomination for Justice Minister, the People Power Party's Special Committee on Press Freedom (chaired by Kim Jang-kyom) asserted, "If true, these allegations represent blatant external pressure on a public broadcaster," adding that it "directly infringes upon the freedom and independence of broadcast programming."

In a statement released on September 20, the committee cited a media report second-hand, stating, "Immediately after KBS reported that a petition containing additional allegations regarding nominee Kim Seung-won had been submitted, a key official from the office of a Democratic Party lawmaker on the Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee reportedly phoned a KBS staff member in protest, to the effect of saying, 'He has already resigned, so why are you publishing the article?'"

The committee continued, "The National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee oversees KBS as an audited institution and holds the authority to review its budget and accounts," adding, "If an official from such an office called directly to protest, it is a matter of an entirely different dimension."

The committee also criticized, "It goes without saying how immense a pressure this would exert on KBS right on the eve of the parliamentary inspection," calling it "intimidation demanding that the broadcaster not air reporting inconvenient to power, and an arrogant mindset seeking to control the public's right to know to suit the taste of power."

Under Article 4, Paragraph 2 of the Broadcasting Act, no one may regulate or interfere with broadcast programming unless provided by law.

The committee also pointed out that the Democratic Party had previously condemned as "control of broadcasting by power" the intervention in KBS's Sewol ferry disaster coverage by Lee Jung-hyun, former senior presidential secretary for public relations under the Park Geun-hye administration.

Defining the allegations as "the Democratic Party's interference in broadcast programming and external pressure," the People Power Party's Special Committee on Press Freedom declared, "If the allegations are confirmed to be true, we will hold them legally and politically accountable."

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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