Tag: MBC

This is interesting, should a reporter be investigated after personal information about a public official is leaked to him? In Korea the answer is yes:

A police investigator shows his ID before protesting labor union members of MBC at the broadcasting network’s headquarters in western Seoul on May 30, 2023. (Yonhap)

Police attempted to raid the headquarters of MBC TV on Tuesday in connection with an investigation into the alleged leak of personal information of Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon, sparking a two-hour standoff with unionized reporters.

Investigators are looking into allegations that an MBC reporter, surnamed Lim, was involved in the leak of Han’s personal information, such as copies of the residence registration document and real estate contracts.

Unionized MBC workers blocked the investigators, holding banners denouncing the investigation as oppression of the press. They held banners reading “Turn back! It’s unfair control of broadcasting” or “The beginning of the Yoon Suk Yeol government’s oppression of MBC.”

With assistance from the company, police investigators succeeded in reaching Lim’s desk inside the building in western Seoul but decided not to execute a search warrant, concluding nothing was subject to seizure.

Earlier in the day, investigators from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency raided Lim’s home as well as the National Assembly Secretariat, and seized evidence, including Lim’s mobile phone.

The investigation began after a member of Seoul’s Gangseo Ward Council filed a complaint accusing a person of violating the Personal Information Protection Act after that person handed him information on Han and his family, which included copies of their residence registration document and real estate contracts.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Yoon administration has decided to get back at MBC after they reported that President Yoon used an expletive against President Joe Biden. The Yoon administration claimed the expletive was directed towards the Korean National Assembly. The sound quality of the clip was poor and not definitive, but MBC captioned it anyway to say Joe Biden. This led to an entire news cycle of negative headlines for Yoon:

President Yoon Suk-yeol said Thursday that important national interests are at stake during presidential overseas trips, after his office decided to ban local TV station MBC’s reporters from boarding Air Force One to cover his upcoming trip to Southeast Asia.

The presidential office informed MBC of the decision Wednesday, two days before Yoon departs for his tour of Cambodia and Indonesia, citing the broadcaster’s repeated “distorted” coverage.

“The president goes on overseas trips using taxpayer money because important national interests are at stake,” Yoon told reporters as he arrived for work Thursday. “We’ve been providing a service to help with coverage of foreign policy and security issues, and I’d like you to accept it in those terms.”

The presidential office did not specify which reports were distorted, but MBC has been at the center of controversy after it broadcast a video of Yoon walking out of an event in New York in September and telling his aides in vulgar language that it would be embarrassing if the National Assembly did not approve of something unspecified.

MBC subtitled the video to make it appear that Yoon was referring to U.S. President Joe Biden, but the presidential office denied there was any mention of Biden and claimed the word he used was in reference to the National Assembly. Yoon’s remarks caught on a hot mic were difficult to hear because of background noise.

“The boarding of the presidential jet has been a service provided to help with coverage of foreign policy and security issues, and in consideration of MBC’s repeated distorted and biased coverage of foreign policy issues recently, we have decided not to provide the service,” the presidential office said in a notice to the company.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but MBC was taken over by the Korean left years ago with the threat of violence from labor unions and legal attacks. Even further back MBC was well known for the fake news they put out about U.S. beef causing mad cow disease that led to massive anti-US and anti-government riots in South Korea.

The back and forth over President Yoon’s hot mic comments during his U.S. trip has become nothing more than partisan bickering at this point. With that said considering MBC’s past track record, it is very believable someone there would be willing to falsify President Yoon’s comments:

The People Power Party (PPP) said Tuesday it will create a task force to investigate what it called “selective and biased” subtitling of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s hot mic moment in New York last week.  
   
The PPP’s announcement came the same day that the Democratic Party (DP) made clear it would push ahead with plans to punish those in the government it deems at fault for what it has characterized as a gaffe-ridden presidential tour of Britain, the United States and Canada.  
   
The dueling plans by the rival parties represent an escalation in the political spat over comments made by Yoon at a fundraiser in New York hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden. (…..)

The comments could be heard in a video recording first released last week by MBC, or Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation. Some of Yoon’s remarks in the clip were drowned out by loud music and background noise.    
   
Based on the broadcaster’s subtitles, Yoon was speaking about Biden losing face if he didn’t get congressional approval for something. Initial reports said he was referring to Biden’s pledge to contribute another $6 billion to the Global Fund, which would require U.S. Congress approval.  
   
The PPP, led by floor leader Joo Ho-young, alleges that MBC distorted the president’s remarks.  
   
“MBC basically incorporated tabloid speculation as subtitles for the president’s words,” Joo said at a gathering of all the party’s lawmakers at the National Assembly on Tuesday. “We believe that MBC violated basic journalistic ethics, including fact-checking, in its report,” he added.  
   
Earlier, the presidential office denied that Yoon was referring to members of the U.S. Congress when he used the expletive, saying that he was actually talking about members of Korea’s National Assembly.  
   
The PPP has already filed a libel lawsuit against MBC President and CEO Park Sung-jae, reporters and other relevant individuals for alleged disclosure of false information.  
   
They argued that the report harmed Korea’s “national interests” and demanded an apology from MBC and its CEO’s resignation.     

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Dr. Tara O, one of my favorite Korea analysts, has an article published about the prosecution and eventual conviction of a cartoonist and journalist which is just another example of the war on conservative journalists by the Moon administration:

On September 11, 2018, the prosecutor proposed  a 1-year sentence each for Mr. Yoon Seo-in, a cartoonist, and Mr. Kim Se-ui, a journalist, for libel at the final hearing at the Seoul Central District Court presided by judge Choi Mi-bok  (최미복).

This libel lawsuit follows another libel lawsuit against a journalist, Mr. Byun Hee-jae, for defaming JTBC, a cable TV broadcaster.  JTBC aired the tablet PC story, which played a crucial role in the former president Park Geun-hye’s impeachment.  Byun has called out JTBC’s tablet PC story as fabricated. Byun’s characterization was corroborated by the special prosecutors’ own forensic report.  However, Byun was sued for libel, and the Seoul Central District Court jailed Byun prior to trial. It is an unusual move to jail a journalist in South Korea, especially prior to a trial, although numerous political opponents have been jailed prior to trial since early 2017.  Byun’s trial is currently underway.

Another worrisome event is that Moon’s Deoburreo Minju Party has submitted a “broadcast law reform” bill to regulate individuals who post videos on Youtube and other video sites as “mass media.”  If this bill becomes law, then the individuals who post videos become “subject to government review” and if it does not like them, the government can “simply get rid of them,” criticized National Assemblyman Kim Jin-tae, Liberty Korea Party.  This is after the Moon administration, along with Media Workers’ Union, took control over major broadcasters MBC and KBS.  [East Asia Research Center]

You can read the whole thing at the link, but just like Byun Hee-jae who was jailed for writing something true, Yoon and Kim put together a cartoon that was true and were convicted.

Seoul court fined a cartoonist Yoon Seo-in & journalist Kim Se-ui $6,150 each over a satire cartoon in a libel suit. The Moon administration dislikes them for speaking out about Moon's policy toward North Korea, economy, security, etc. #FreedomofSpeechhttps://t.co/hnRwcLCCUO

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) October 27, 2018

An interesting fact from the article was how the South Korean media that was taken over by the Korean left through labor union violence, has slanted their coverage of the story.  Even more interesting is that MBC after being taken over then had the architect of the phony US beef riots of 2008 put in charge as President.

You would think with the jailing and fining of journalists the international media would be rushing to cover this, but for one minor New York Times article there has been little coverage of this.

There is a fascinating read posted over at One Free Korea by guest author Dr. Tara O that goes into detail about how the Moon Jae-in administration was able to take over the news network MBC.  During the timeframe that led to former President Park’s impeachment, MBC was the only network giving coverage to activists protesting in favor of Park Geun-hye.  Once elected the Moon administration made sure to take action against MBC using the typical playbook from the Korean left:

Controlling the narrative through the information people receive is one of the key steps in influencing people’s thoughts and behaviors. Influencing the media is important in this regard. The Moon administration in South Korea has taken over control of Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), with help from the labor union, the National Union of Media Workers at MBC Headquarters (전국언론노동조합 MBC 본부), which is under the umbrella of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) (전국민주노동조합총연맹). Similar methods were employed to take over another network, the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). The following examines the methods in which the hostile takeover of MBC occurred.  (…………)

– At the National Assembly, a document was discovered that stated the press labor unions will use physical measures to force the resignation of the MBC Foundation/KBS Foundation board members and the presidents of both MBC and KBS (see video starting 3:22). It also stated the use of the Inspector General and other national offices/tools to look for any politically damaging evidence on the members.

– The Seoul court issued an arrest warrant for the MBC president for not showing up to labor union’s summons to question him, to which MBC replied “The (Moon) government’s suppression to take control over the broadcaster has finally become clearer with the arrest warrant.”

– The labor union members then went to the universities, workplaces, churches where the board members go to, and harassed them, even using violence.

– Unable to withstand the harassment and threats to them and their families, some of the board members began to resign.  [One Free Korea]

I highly recommend reading the entire article at the link, this is a must read to understand how the Korean left takes control of the media in South Korea and uses it to push their agenda.   The effort to control the media narrative in South Korea is further advanced by the Moon administration using libel laws to silence their critics.

President Moon receives largely glowing coverage in the US media which makes me wonder if anyone in the American media will actually report on the Moon administration’s efforts to attack the freedom of the press and speech in South Korea?

Prosecution investigator carry boxes containing confiscated items out of the headquarters of public broadcaster MBC in Seoul on Nov. 22, 2017. The investigators from the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office searched the main office as part of a probe into alleged irregular labor practices conducted by its former top officials, including its now sacked chief. (Yonhap)