[Opinion] KBS, A Fake Public Broadcaster

French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed an advertising ban on public television and called for the creation of a new channel similar to the BBC, a well-regarded public broadcaster, by combining one TV channel and one radio channel. The new channel called "France Monde" will provide access to French culture and enhance French identity, according to his proposal. He said there would be no additional tax burden on the people because the revenue lost from advertising on public television would be offset by a higher tax on commercials aired on private channels.

What deserves our attention is that the plan to create a new public channel was announced at his New Years press conference, where he declared he would raise the quality of people’s happiness. He proposed the plan saying that as “GDP fails to properly gauge the quality of life, a new measurement index of the people’s happiness needs to be considered.” The remarks demonstrate his trait as a cultural president and reflect his conviction that high-quality broadcasts, easily accessible, affects people’s quality of life. He reckons it is culture not material that quenches French thirst and so an upgraded broadcast should satiate their desire.

In a capitalistic society, media is run by advertisements. But public broadcasting is an exception. It operates based on viewership fees from the public who agree to the principle of “welfare of viewers” which raises the spirit of community by caring for the underprivileged. In the case of KBS, Korea’s public broadcasting company, however, revenue comes from advertisements, which account for almost half (47 percent) of total revenue, the largest portion in the world. This is in stark contrast to the UK’s BBC and Japan’s NHK, which are totally dependent on viewership fees. KBS is simply a greedy commercial broadcaster in the guise of a public entity that rakes in profits from both viewership fees and advertisements.

It is now making a far-fetched request that the current 2,500 won viewership fee, which has remained the same since 1981, should be raised 60 percent to achieve fairness. While ridiculing the public with reckless management and one-sided broadcasting, it goes on to ask the government to allow spot advertisements. Worse yet, it has declared to run a deficit budget of 43 billion won this year. We are afraid that KBS’s low-quality broadcasting ends up representing our quality of life.

Editorial writer Huh Moon-myeong, angelhuh@donga.com