KBC’s Conclusion, as Predicted

The Korean Broadcasting Committee (Chairman Roh Sung-dae) concluded on Friday in its general meeting that there was “no problem” in all of the nine programs on the president impeachment. TV viewers filed complaints on these programs for being biased.

The nine programs concerned are the four KBS programs, four MBC programs, and one TBS (Traffic Broadcasting System) program. The targeted KBS programs are “Chuijae (news material) File 4321,” “Discussion with 100 Participants, What Do You Think,” “The Preliminary Announcement of ‘60 Minute Pursuit’ ” (broadcast on March 14); “This is Paek Ji-yon at the Radio Information Center” (broadcast on March 12 and 18). The MBC programs are “Shin Kang-gyoon’s News Service, The fact is...” (broadcast on March 19); “A Very Special Morning” (broadcast on March 18); “Dowol’s Special Lecture, Who Are We?” (broadcast on March 15); “Kang Sok and Kim Hye-young’s Shinggeul Bunggeul (smilingly) Show” (broadcast on March 14). The TBS program is “Driver’s Seat at 2 P.M.” (broadcast on March 12).

Among these nine programs, MBC’s “Shin Kang-gyoon…” was pointed out as having “showed a destructive bias” in the “Report on the broadcast programs dealt with the impeachment” issued by the Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies (KSJCS). However, the committee did not agree with it.

“Shin Kang-gyoon…” broadcasted 11 news reports collected by its reporters and eight opinions made by outsiders in three items, including “Nation’s Selection and its Political Power.” It was pointed that all of them were against the impeachment. “Chuijae File 4321” of KBS1 was also pointed to have shown its bias towards anti-impeachment. Among its 26 interviews, there were 13 anti-impeachment opinions, three pro-impeachment, and 10 neutral.

An official of the committee said, “We decided that the propensity of the ‘Shin Kang-gyoon…’ was not serious enough to violate the rules and that regarding the complaints that the ‘Chuijae File 4321’ exaggerated a woman speaker’s words, the program delivered the fact as it was.”

The disputes on the impeachment programs that have been issues for four months since the impeachment passed the parliament on March 12 were ended as the committee concluded its deliberation on each program. The committee made a “recommendation” on March 31, asking the three broadcasting companies to be more careful on the impeachment issues. It has been investigating each program after deciding on July 1 that reviewing overall impeachment programs is beyond its authority.

Jin-Yeong Lee ecolee@donga.com