hankyoreh

a close aide to President Lee Myung-bak

Shareholders of all-news cable TV channel YTN pushed a bill through in just 40 seconds to endorse the appointment of Gu Bon-hong, 60, a close confidante of President Lee Myung-bak, as their new chief executive officer on July 17. The company mobilized some 200 contract security guards to cordon off the shareholders’ meeting from union members, some of whom are shareholders themselves, as they protested both inside and outside of the building where the meeting was held.

This is the first time that the shareholders of a media company used security guards to pass a bill naming a new chief executive officer. This is also the first time that a former adviser to an incumbent president has become the head of a major broadcaster since the country fought for broadcasting democracy in 1990. Gu was President Lee’s media adviser for broadcasting during Lee’s presidential election campaign.

The bill to formally appoint Gu was passed at a YTN shareholders’ meeting that was held away from its headquarters in a conference room in the building of the Digital Media City complex in Sangam-dong, Seoul, at 9:00 a.m. on July 17, three days after the shareholders’ meeting was disrupted by the YTN union.

With contract security guards escorting Kim Jae-yoon, the outgoing YTN chief executive, to the podium, the bill was submitted and approved; Kim exited immediately afterward.

That afternoon, YTN held a temporary board meeting and officially endorsed Gu as its new chief executive officer. He will serve a three-year term. Some 200 contract security guards cordoned off the entrances to the room and the podium inside to prevent union members from entering.

The YTN union said the results of the shareholders’ meeting should be nullified because the company banned employee shareholders from entering the meeting room, prevented them from expressing their opinions by mobilizing the contract security guards and skipped over the process of gaining the agreement of shareholders. The union is considering filing a court injunction to nullify the decision and plans to ban Gu from going to his office.

Hyeon Deok-su, the head of YTN’s employee stock ownership cooperative, said, “Despite the pros and cons of the bill, the shareholders’ meeting was carried out illegally because it skipped the process of winning agreement (from shareholders). We will take legal action.”

Experts consider the appointment of Gu to be a signal that the Lee administration will strengthen its grip on public broadcasters. Kookmin University Professor Lee Chang-hyun said, “In terms of the shareholder structure, YTN is similar to a public broadcaster. Naming a former adviser to the president as the head of a public broadcaster clarifies its intention to control public broadcasters directly.”

In separate statements, media organizations, including the Korean Federation of Press Unions, called for Gu to resign, describing his appointment as “the regime’s brutal suppression of a media company.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]