Prosecution to Collect U.S. Data

The prosecution investigating the suspicion over the coverage of mad cow disease by MBC`s "PD Notebook" decided to collect the relevant data the program used from overseas.

In particular, the prosecution is reportedly contacting related sources in order to collect the data that the TV program gained from the United States, including the MRI scan of Aretha Vinson who died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).

Prosecutors intend to determine whether the TV program intentionally described as if Vinson died of vCJD, also known as human mad cow disease, in the interview with her mother, even though it knew that she died of CJD.

CJD and vCJD share some similar symptoms, but their brain MRI scan films are clearly distinguishable from one another.

A source from the prosecution said, “When the TV program was being shot, the outcome of Vinson’s MRI scan was already out. If MBC aired such a program after confirming that the MRI scan proved that the cause of death is CJD, not vCJD, it is a distortion of fact.”

The prosecution is focusing on the caption that the TV program showed as the translation of the interview with Vinson’s mother. When the mother said, “The MRI scan showed the possibility of CJD,” the TV program showed translation that included “vCJD.” When she said, “I don’t know how my daughter might have had vCJD,” the caption shown on the screen was “I don’t know how my daughter had vCJD.”

After analyzing various data, the prosecution confirmed that the mother has never mentioned the word “vCJD” in interviews with other media outlets, including CNN.

It is planning to request the original video footage of the show to check whether the TV program asked loaded questions to have the mother say the word “vCJD.”

A source from the prosecution said, “We need to understand the context of the interview through the original footage, which contains both questions and answers. We’ll narrow down data that we need and request them on a consecutive manner, while persuading MBC to hand over the data.”

Prosecutors are considering calling in the “PD Notebook” production team to directly hear from them about the process of producing the program, if MBC keeps refusing to submit the requested data.

Meanwhile, another team of prosecutors investigating the suspicion over KBS President Chung Yeon-joo’s breach of trust demanded yesterday that KBS submit the data to be released in accordance with the decision made in the lawsuit involving KBS.

dnsp@donga.com