2023-08-22 19:00:21
Dong-gwan Lee, a candidate for the chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, goes to work at the office preparing for the personnel hearing prepared near the government complex in Gwacheon on the 1st. Senior Reporter Kang Chang-kwang chang@hani.co.kr
On the 21st, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), acting as chairman Hyo-jae Kim, dismissed Kwon Tae-seon, the chairman of the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Association, and recommended Hwang Geun, a professor of media communication at Sunmoon University, for the vacant position as director of the Korea Broadcasting System, completing the official work of the 5th KCC. Of the three remaining members of the KCC, the term of office for acting Kim and opposition party-recommended Standing Committee member Kim Hyun is until the 23rd. If President Yoon Seok-yeol overcomes opposition from the opposition party and proceeds to appoint Lee Dong-gwan as a candidate for the Korea Communications Commission, the next Korea Communications Commission will take the first step with a two-member system of Lee and Sang-in Lee. That time is likely to be this week at the earliest. Candidate Lee Dong-gwan has been pointed out as a ‘technician to control the media’ by the opposition party and media and civic groups. At the National Assembly personnel hearing on the 18th, targeting public broadcasting, they insisted that ‘independence from unions (unions), not power and capital’ was needed, while ‘it is right to let consumers choose the information market in a competitive system’. It showed a willingness to promote privatization. Concerns are growing that the fairness of broadcasting and media publicity will be greatly damaged in the 6th Korea Communications Commission system led by him. ■ Prospects for accelerated replacement of public broadcasting executives Candidate Lee said at a National Assembly hearing regarding the re-permission and re-approval system for broadcasting companies, “Isn’t it realistically impossible to abolish public broadcasting to be honest? In the case of KBS, if there is a problem, it is correct to blame the management.” On the other hand, regarding private broadcasting, he hinted at the possibility of deregulation, saying, “I wonder if it is necessary to operate the re-permission and re-approval system if it exceeds a certain standard.” Summarizing the remarks of Candidate Lee, the 6th KCC is highly likely to push ahead without interruption to the replacement of executives in addition to the ongoing replacement of public broadcasting directors. In the case of the board of directors of Korea Broadcasting System, opposition-oriented chairman Nam Young-jin and director Yoon Seok-nyeon have already been dismissed, and passport-oriented Seo Ki-seok and Hwang Geun-in have been appointed to the position. As the composition of the Korea Broadcasting Corporation board of directors, which was 4 to 7 before the launch of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, has been overturned to 6 to 5, there is no obstacle to the proposal to dismiss President Kim Eui-cheol. Since the inauguration of the current government, President Kim has been under pressure from the ruling party and the conservative labor union of Korea Broadcasting Corporation to resign. After holding an extraordinary board meeting on the 23rd and electing the chairman, the Korea Broadcasting Corporation board of directors is expected to begin the process of dismissing President Kim at the end of this month at the earliest or early next month at the latest. Cultural Broadcasting (MBC) is also facing a management change crisis similar to Korea Broadcasting. Chairman Kwon of Bang Jin-jin, the major shareholder of Cultural Broadcasting, has already been dismissed, and another opposition-oriented director Kim Ki-joong is regarding to have a hearing on the dismissal of the Korea Communications Commission on the 11th of next month. If Chairman Kwon and Director Kim are dismissed, and the position is filled by the passport director, the opposition composition of the visiting team will reverse from the previous 3 to 6 to 5 to 4. In this way, the dismissal of Ahn Hyung-jun, president of cultural broadcasting, can be handled at any time. President Ahn was accused by the conservative cultural broadcasting labor union in March in relation to the alleged ownership of borrowed names (suspicion of obstruction of business). The dismissal of the president of Korea Broadcasting System can be decided by the president at the request of the board of directors, and the dismissal of the president of Munhwa Broadcasting can be decided by the visiting team. ■ Privatization/Regulatory Rights Utilization, Public Opinion Control Concerns Along with the replacement of Korean Broadcasting and Cultural Broadcasting executives, the privatization of YTN is expected to accelerate further in the 6th Korea Communications Commission. Since the inauguration of the current government, the privatization of Ytien, which has been promoted by selling public corporation shares (total of 30.95%), is currently in the process of deciding the manager of the sale. Inside Ytien, it is expected that if Lee is appointed as the chairman of the KCC, the sale announcement, which has been delayed, will come out sooner or later. In order to exercise management rights by buying shares in YTN, it is necessary to cross the barrier of approval of the change of the largest investor by the Korea Communications Commission, but it is difficult to see the Korea Communications Commission under the Lee Dong-gwan system as an obstacle. Responding to ‘fake news’, which President Yoon has emphasized, is also expected to be a key task for Candidate Lee and the 6th Korea Communications Commission. Candidate Lee emphasized the need to prevent the spread of fake news and improve the reliability of portals in a written response to the National Assembly ahead of the hearing. The 5th Korea Communications Commission also announced several times that it would seek to legislate the Portal Algorithm Transparency Committee and the News Partnership Evaluation Committee within the year, while inspecting Naver’s news search algorithm last month. In the 6th term, there is a high possibility that the level of pressure on portals such as Naver and Kakao will be further increased ahead of the general election next year. Candidate Lee and the passport claim that the replacement of public broadcasting executives, privatization, and countermeasures once morest fake news are measures to ‘normalize broadcasting’ and strengthen media transparency, but the media and expert evaluations are different. On the 22nd, Kim Dong-chan, head of the policy committee at the Citizens’ Solidarity for Media Reform, said in regards to the current government’s attempt to replace the public broadcasting executives, “The side effects of deteriorating the quality of journalism, such as fairness of reporting, in the short term, and damage to the trust and sustainability of public broadcasting in the long term. “If we unilaterally push for control over portals claiming to respond to fake news, it will inevitably lead to a significant reduction in the freedom of expression of the press and citizens,” he said. Reporter Seongjin Choi csj@hani.co.kr
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