KBS Faces Strong Disciplinary Measures over Use of North Korean Song

The Korean Broadcasting Commission (Chairman Roh Sung-dae) has decided to judge the matter surrounding KBS One TV’s show “Media Focus,” which attracted public criticism by playing “Juckgiga,” a representative revolutionary song of praise of North Korea, as background music. Media Focus played the song as background music for 40 seconds during a cartoon segment broadcast on August 14 that criticized the government’s embargo on broadcasts about the troops dispatched to Iraq—the Zaitoon unit.

The News and Cultural Program Deliberation Committee (led by Chairman Ha Young-suk, former president of the Daejun district of MBC) of the Korean Broadcasting Commission held a meeting on the afternoon of August 19 and discussed the program’s violation of ratings regulations. On this day, the News and Cultural Program Deliberation Committee investigated whether this program had violated Paragraphs Two and Three of Article Seven, and Article 32 which state the inspiration of the law-abiding spirit of the broadcasting rating regulations, which regulates the public responsibilities of broadcasting.

An associate from the Korean Broadcasting Commission said that “although this matter will inevitably require a strong disciplinary punishment, it is a difficult matter to judge since there is no precedent for this and the restriction policy is unclear.” The Korean Broadcasting Commission is planning to decide the final disciplinary measures to be taken by this month based on the results judged by the Committee.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Yongdeongpo police station called the freelancer who was allegedly responsible for the musical selection, Kim, in the form of a voluntary appearance on the afternoon of August 19, and thoroughly investigated whether or not Kim had used the song knowing that it was a revolutionary song of praise of North Korea.

However, police officials are saying that it is hard to judge this matter with any deliberateness as Kim is not well acquainted with the circumstances in Korea because he attended high school and university in Canada. The police also announced that they are planning to run an additional investigation into the internet website administrator of the website where Kim downloaded the music file.

Jin-Yeong Lee Se-Jin Jung ecolee@donga.com mint4a@donga.com