On the 5th, the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCC) Broadcasting Standards Subcommittee (Broadcasting Subcommittee, Chairman Ryu Hee-rim) cited the Newstapa interview with Kim Man-bae and Shin Hak-rim, reporting on MBC’s <News Desk>, < PD’s Notebook>, and < JTBC Newsroom> at the highest level. It was decided to impose a fine as a disciplinary action. On the other hand, a ‘recommendation’ for administrative guidance at the level of light punishment was approved for the conservative general channels TV Chosun, Channel A, and MBN , which were on the same agenda. Opposition-recommended member Ok Si-chan left before deliberations began, saying, “The results of today’s meeting have already been announced.” The fine sanctions against
MBC and JTBC are an unprecedented level of sanctions that were repeated 10 days after the fine sanctions imposed on KBS , JTBC , and YTN at the last general meeting. The statutory fine is the highest level of disciplinary action under the Broadcasting Act, and 10 points are deducted from the broadcast evaluation that is reflected in the Korea Communications Commission (Chairman Lee Dong-gwan) review of re-licensing and re-approval of broadcasting companies. The amount of the fine will be discussed at a later general meeting.
At this meeting, the production team’s opinion statement process was held for 16 programs broadcast from March 7 to 8 last year ( excluding JTBC Newsroom) , including reports, radio current affairs programs, and conversation discussion programs . 16 production crews from 9 broadcasting companies attended the opinion statement process. The deliberation, including opinion statements, lasted over three hours.
Due to the absence of member Kim Yu-jin and the refusal of member Ok Si-chan (hereinafter recommended by President Moon Jae-in) to deliberate, only three ruling party members participated in the decision without the participation of opposition members. Commissioner Ok protested, saying, “The Korea Communications Standards Commission cannot become the ruling party’s media countermeasures committee.”
The three passport committee members asked similar questions to each broadcasting station. Chairman Ryu Hee-rim (recommended by the President) asked, “What is the first thing an investigative reporter should check when something is suddenly reported two days before the presidential election?” and “What efforts were made to obtain the full transcript?” went to the media company (Newstapa). “Did you make any additional efforts?”, “Why were you so sure that the contents of the transcript were true after just a few hours?”
Commissioner Hwang Seong-wook (recommended by the People Power Party) said, “Did you not wonder why Newstapa suddenly published a recording that was recorded six months ago?” and “Did you not receive a promise of assurance from the reporter’s internal industry, separate from the content of the report?” I asked a question. Commissioner Heo Yeon-hoe (recommended by the People Power Party) pointed out bias by comparing the amount of arguments from both sides measured in seconds. MBC conducted panel interviews with the ruling and opposition parties at 30-minute intervals.Regarding <Kim Jong-bae’s Focus>, he argued that the panelists should come out at the same time and answer the same questions, saying that listeners might misunderstand after only hearing one side while getting in and out of the car.
MBC <Kim Jong-bae’s Focus>, TBS <Shin Jang-sik’s Kidney Opening>, YTN <Lee Dong-hyeong’s News! A ‘caution’ decision regarding legal sanctions was made for three radio current affairs programs, including ‘Head to Head먹튀검증 Competition’. However, for TBS’s <Kim Eo-jun’s News Factory>, a higher level of sanctions, ‘discipline of officials’, was decided on the grounds that the host had not maintained fairness and balance so far. KBS’s <Joo Jin-woo Live> and <Choi Kyung-young’s Strongest Current Affairs> were postponed to the next broadcasting subcommittee due to the production team’s request to postpone the statement of opinions.
On the other hand, there was a difference in the level of sanctions for general reporting channels. While it was decided to impose fines on < JTBC Newsroom> (broadcast on February 21 and February 28 last year) , which had its first exclusive report before Newstapa’s report , it was imposed on conservative general channels such as TV Chosun, Channel A, and MBN. Administrative guidance ‘recommendation’ was approved. The ‘recommendation’ was also approved on JTBC’s <Ssuljeon News Live> and Yonhap News TV .
Chairman Ryu said of the JTBC newsroom, “It reported one reporter’s one-sided coverage without cross-checking, and as a result, important facts were omitted and the facts were distorted. Combined with the subsequent transcript, the impact on the presidential election was significant. Broadcast news.” “It has greatly damaged trust in us,” he pointed out. The ruling party members evaluated that the conservative comprehensive channel provided sufficient counterarguments and allowed the panel to participate in a balanced manner. Meanwhile, regarding SBS’s <Joo Young-jin’s News Briefing> (broadcast on March 7-8 last year )
, which was put on the agenda for additional emergency deliberation with the same content, ‘presentation of opinions’ for administrative guidance at the level of light disciplinary action was decided. Commissioner Hwang Seong-wook said, “There is no problem because the host starts from the beginning by stating that objective confirmation is impossible.”
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