Broadcasting watchdog chief resigns ahead of impeachment vote

Jul 03, 2024, 10:48 am

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Korea Communications Commission (KCC) Chairman Kim Hong-il enters his office in the government complex in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, on July 2, 2024./ Source: Yonhap News

AsiaToday reporter Park Young-hoon

Trade union members of public broadcasters, including the Federation of Korean Journalists (FKJ), held a press conference on Tuesday in front of the National Assembly in order to prevent “evil” broadcasting bills and the normalization of MBC, claiming that the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) is trying to dominate broadcasting permanently through the revisions to broadcasting laws. The FKJ claimed that the DP won the last general election with MBC’s biased broadcasting and is engaged in a “sophisticated trick” to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol through suppression of media outlets and media control. Nearly 30 journalists and union members attended the press conference.

“The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is habitually threatening to impeach the chairman of the Korea Communications Commission with absurdness,” said Kang Myung-il, co-chairman of the MBC Labor Union’s Emergency Management Committee.

“The KCTU is dreaming of the opposition’s permanent control of broadcasting through the revisions to broadcasting laws,” he said. “Democracy can be settled only when MBC is normalized in conjunction with KBS and YTN as soon as possible to correct unfair reports.”

“MBC continues to broadcast unilaterally at every election,” he said. “It has also manipulated and altered the presidential election results, the flower of democracy,” Kang said. “In this way, our society is still encouraging unfair biased broadcasts by the KCTU’s press union.”

Kim Hong-il, chairman of the Korean Communications Commission (KCC), offered his resignation and skipped a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day. “The public will be well aware that the reasons for impeachment claimed by the opposition party have no legal justification,” Kim said at the retirement ceremony held at the government complex in Gwacheon, south of Seoul. “The resignation is the only way to prevent the long-term suspension of broadcasting and communications media policies due to the impeachment by the large opposition party,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Yoon Suk-yeol accepted the resignation. Lee Jin-sook, former head of MBC’s branch in the central city of Daejeon, is among the likely candidates for the new KCC chief.

#KCC #Kim Hong-il #resign