South Korea’s two major TV stations MBC (Cultural Broadcasting) and KBS (Korea Broadcasting) started a large-scale strike on September 4, and popular variety shows such as "Infinite Challenge" and "Two Days One Night" will be suspended in the future. The anchors, reporters, videographers, and supervisors of the two TV stations, including 3,800 employees, participated in the sit-in strike, and more than 140 ministerial leaders threatened to resign and demanded the resignation of the KBS and MBC presidents appointed by the Park Geun-hye government to restore independence. Fair news reports. What kind of open and secret struggles are there between these two TV stations, and what does it have to do with the South Korean government?
MBC, KBS, and SBS (Seoul Broadcasting) are the three major TV media in South Korea. Among them, as a 100% state-run TV station, KBS has always been pro-government. SBS is a private company holding a large number of TV series such as "You from the Star" and "Pinocchio", which are popular among young people. MBC's popularity is also very high. It has produced ace variety shows such as "Infinite Challenge" and "We Are Married", but its composition is slightly special. Although it is a private TV station, its board of directors is recommended by the Blue House, the ruling party, and the opposition party. It consists of 9 directors, who control the operation of the TV station.
Why did Korean TV stations strike if they didn’t agree?
is not the first time that the two TV stations have launched a massive strike, especially the MBC trade union, which has repeatedly been the vanguard of media strikes. Since its establishment in 1988, it has launched 11 strikes to protest government interference in the media. The struggle between TV station
and political forces dates back to 2008, when Lee Myung-bak took office as the president of South Korea and replaced all MBC management and directors with pro-government figures. In 2010, he also promoted his alumnus Kim Jae-chul to MBC's president. At the same time, Lee Myung-bak also appointed Kim In-kyu, the propaganda minister of his campaign, as the new president of KBS, and placed his personal cronies into the management. MBC and KBS have since become government mouthpieces. All negative government news has been minimized, critical reporting has been restricted, and union members have been frequently fired. As a result, the MBC TV station union launched a strike by voting. KBS, news channel YTN, and United News Agency also joined in and demanded that its president step down. However, instead of defending freedom of the press, the strike resulted in the dismissal of more than 100 media professionals.
Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak
Since then, MBC has reported more and more unfair reports, such as deliberately downplaying the report on Lee Myung-bak’s private home scandal; in the Seoul mayoral election, he supported the ruling party candidates and criticized candidates without party membership; The government's omissions in the Four Rivers Project, etc. TV station employees became puppets, so in 2012 MBC broke out another 170-day strike. The union not only accused the political forces of excessive interference in the news, but also accused the president of Kim Jae-chul of having fornication with a program planner. Profiteering in the show. Subsequently, KBS also responded immediately, protesting improper personnel arrangements. However, the strike ended in failure. Hundreds of TV station employees who participated in the strike were fired, and Li Mingbo ordered the entire media industry to be cleaned up.
MBC former president Kim Jae-chul
, this strike, in the final analysis, is Park Geun-hye to blame?
After the end of Li Mingbo's presidency, the situation of MBC and KBS did not improve. During the 2012 presidential election, at that time, the MBC labor union asked the presidential candidates to sign the "Convention on Settling Press Freedom". The candidates Moon Jae-in and An Cheol-soo both promised to sign, but Park Geun-hye did not respond. Kim Jae-chul continued to suppress MBC staff and published reports trying to cling to Park Geun-hye of the Conservative Party, demonizing the camp.
After Park Geun-hye was successfully inaugurated as president, Kim Jae-chul was removed from office for abusing his power to execute personnel orders privately. However, the power of the government once again extended to MBC and KBS, and Park Geun-hye appointed pro-government figures Ko Dae-young and Kim Jang-gum as the presidents of KBS and MBC, respectively. Therefore, in reporting on the impeachment of the president and the candlelight rally, the impartiality of the two TV stations was affected by high-level officials, and only one TV station, SBS, fairly reported the Park Geun-hye scandal.
Gao Darong (left), Jin Changqian (right)
Moon Jae-in took office this year, the top management of the two major TV stations has not changed. So, inAfter a month of brewing, KBS and MBC launched a strike on September 4, demanding that their president step down.
47 variety show producers, including "Infinite Challenge", have jointly accused their presidents of acting arbitrarily, producing programs based on personal preferences, and continuously reducing funding. The anchor of the TV station stated that they could only read the scheduled news releases and could not modify the anchor words, but many news content was false. Some staff members were fired for fighting for freedom of the press. Moreover, MBC executives also have a secret blacklist, which distinguishes some employees based on their political leanings and suppresses them.
In addition to the interference of political forces, the personal misconduct of the presidents of the two television stations has also been accused. The KBS union stated that its president Gao Dae-young and chairman Lee In-ho abused their power to seek personal gain for themselves, causing hundreds of millions of won in economic losses to KBS TV. MBC President Kim Chang-gum is accused of improper labor practices and has begun an investigation by the Seoul Ministry of Employment and Labor.
As of the evening of September 6, the strikes between KBS and MBC are continuing, and Korean TV stations may face a major reshuffle.
