Politicians must clear the public broadcast mess

Every time a new governing party took power, it attempted to seat friendly figures in the C-suite of public broadcasters.

The Seoul Administrative Court on Monday issued an injunction against the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) replacing six out of nine directors of the board of Foundation of Broadcast Culture (FBC), the main shareholder of public broadcaster MBC. The injunction further undermines the authority of the dysfunctional state media watchdog under two standing commissioners instead of the normal five.

The court accepted the FBC chairwoman Kwon Tae-sun’s request for the suspension of the appointments of the six directors by the KCC. The injunction is valid for 30 days after the first ruling on the suit to neutralize the appointments. Since it would take two to three years for the case to be finalized at the Supreme Court, the replacements of the six members on the nine-member FBC board would be impossible under the current Yoon Suk Yeol administration.

The administrative court ruled that the KCC’s deliberation and conclusion of such a sensitive matter only based on the judgment of the two remaining members of the five-member commission can violate the KCC Act because it undermines the law’s purpose of upholding freedom and fairness of broadcasting through a diverse composition of the board. The KCC’s appointment of a person to replace the current FBC chair in August last year was also rejected by the court because it was decided by just two members of the five-member commission.

Every time a new governing party took power, it attempted to seat friendly figures in the C-suite of public broadcasters. The liberal Moon Jae-in administration replaced some members of the FBC with its allies in October 2017 and sacked then-MBC president Kim Jang-gyeom. A media institute of Seoul National University issued a report criticizing biased news programs under leftist hosts.

However, the conservative Yoon administration has been equally unbalanced by running the KCC under a two-commissioner system. The KCC even chose six out of 83 candidates for members of the FBC in just two hours by ignoring its own guidelines.

The KCC attributes all the problems to the majority opposition Democratic Party’s refusal to recommend two members of the five-member commission even though the party is entitled to recommend them to the president. The KCC sits on a pile of homework. It must groom the media environment to help promote global content providers. It needs to review permits for 12 broadcasting operators at the end of the year. It cannot afford to be mired in political disputes. Politicians must clear the mess in the broadcast front.