Broadcasting Committee Will Decide on Recommendation for SBS’s Renewal Permission Today

The Broadcasting Committee (chairman: Roh Seong-dae) will hold a meeting on the afternoon of November 29 and make a final decision on whether or not to recommend SBS’s copyright of the radio wave to the Ministry of Information and Communication. A recommendation for SBS’s renewal of permission had been deferred due to the issue of social responsibility of broadcasting profits.

The broadcasting committee’s Seong Yoo-bo, chairman of the screening committee for recommendation for renewal of permission of broadcasting companies, said that “If we make a decision on recommendations for permission renewal, it will be a conditional recommendation including a separation of ownership and management. If there is no consensus on whether to recommend or not to recommend it, there will be a possibility of postponing the decision.”

The broadcasting committee has postponed the recommendation for renewal of permission for SBS, which has permission to use the radio wave until the end of December, because politicians raised a question over SBS chairman Yoon Se-young breaking his 1990 foundation promise to grant 15 percent of his earnings before taxes to the society annually.

A person from the broadcasting committee said that “as a result of inquires into legal advisors, it is difficult to forecast a final decision since two different opinions face each other equally: One opinion is that Chairman Yoon’s social responsibly promise was a precondition for his permission to operate a broadcasting business and has legal force. The other one is that there is no legal binding.”

SBS stated that it will pay 30 billion won out of an unpaid 51.1 billion won, which is the amount of promised money, for three years and additionally grant 10 percent of its annual net profits to the society beginning next year as the social responsibility issue has been raised during the examination process of recommendations for renewal permission.

Jin-Yeong Lee ecolee@donga.com