When the argument that the Yoon Seok-yeol government should accept the proposal to improve the governance structure of public broadcasters put forward by the Democratic Party as a party argument was published in a column in the Chosun Ilbo, the KBS Labor Union, which had been opposed to the Democratic Party proposal, poured harsh criticism on the Chosun Ilbo. The conservative camp is ‘divided’ over the Democratic Party bill. Earlier, on April 27, all 171 members of the Democratic Party of Korea agreed to amend the Broadcasting Act to change the method of selecting the board of directors and president of KBS, Broadcasting Culture Promotion Association (MBC), and EBS from the existing 7 to 4 or 6 to 3 recommendation structure to a 25-member steering committee. has proposed
Seok-min Yoon, a professor of journalism at Seoul National University, a representative conservative journalism scholar, said on the 20th that The Chosun Ilbo column pointed to the Democratic Party’s proposal as “they will not graciously give up the control of public broadcasters”, “they took over public broadcasters throughout the period in power and broadcast broadcasts biased toward the pro-government. “The new government and ruling party should accept this proposal in a broad framework,” he criticized.
Professor Yoon Seok-min said, “The dream of broadcasting in which the people are the masters is still precious, and the starting point is reform of the governance structure subordinate to political power.” It is a kind of corporatist model found in According to the Democratic Party’s proposal, △Negative and non-negotiating groups △Professional groups such as the Broadcasting Society, △Functional groups such as the PD Association, △Viewers’ Committee, △Employers’ organization, the Broadcasting Association, and workers’ group, the Bargaining Representatives’ Union, etc. will have the right to recommend the steering committee.
Professor Yoon said, “It is questionable how well this institutional model will work in a reality where not only broadcasting functional groups, but also academic societies are not free from camp logic. It will be improved.” Then he said, “Someone must stop this disgusting (political patronageism) custom,” and argued that “This plan will contribute to correcting the so-called ‘open air broadcasting’ that is essentially anti-professionalism.”
Then, the KBS Labor Union, the second in-house union that had actively opposed the Democratic Party proposal, issued a statement on the 20th, accusing the Chosun Ilbo, saying, “Does the Chosun Ilbo, which advocates conservative politics, also convey the unilateral sophistry of communist members?” The KBS union criticized the column as “the sophistication of the nuance of ‘The Yoon Seok-yeol administration should receive a 25-member bill to pay public broadcasting to the KCTU’s press union'” and “The Chosun Ilbo, which published (Yun Seok-min’s column) with no concept, is in this situation. You will have to take full responsibility for what kind of results it will bring.”
Later, on the 23rd of the Chosun Ilbo, an article was published by Heo Seong-kwon, chairman of the KBS Labor Union. Chairman Huh insisted, “If the 25-member Steering Committee bill is institutionalized, a system will be completed that allows the KCTU to ‘permanently take over’ public broadcasting.” organization,” he said. Then, he suggested that, if the bill is passed, there will be 16 to 17 members of the pro-democracy union or pro-democratic party, and as an alternative to the 7 to 6 recommendation of the ruling and opposition parties, revision of the broadcasting law, which aims to introduce a ‘special majority system’ when appointing the president. This is the same as the amendment to the Broadcasting Act proposed by Representative Park Seong-joong of People’s Power in September 2020.