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Prosecutors have announced that “The Producer’s Notebook,” the current affairs television program produced by national broadcaster MBC, distorted certain facts in an investigative report about mad cow disease broadcast on April 29. The investigation began after the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries asked the prosecution to look into whether the program had defamed the agriculture minister. Prosecutors were believed to have indicted the program’s producers without arrest on charges of defamation.

On July 29, the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office released a 140-page interim report on its investigation into “The Producer’s Notebook” and renewed its demand that the MBC program submit original video tapes related to the program’s televised reports about mad cow disease.

Choi Gyo-il, a senior prosecutor in charge of the probe, said, “Because ‘The Producer’s Notebook’ refused to submit the requested materials, we reconstructed the content of the reports shown on ‘The Producer’s Notebook’ through interviews with witnesses. There are 59 things that can cause animals to become downer cows, but ‘The Producer’s Notebook’ featured information about downer cows infected with mad cow disease, while ignoring all of the other reasons.”

In the report, prosecutors also said the MBC program had intentionally distorted certain facts in an interview with Robin Vinson, the mother of an American woman, Aretha Vinson, who died of a brain disease. During the interview, Vinson discussed several possible causes for her daughter’s death, such as the aftereffects of stomach surgery, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human form of mad cow disease. However, “The Producer’s Notebook” episode incited fear by claiming that the American woman had died of the human form of mad cow disease without mentioning the other possible causes, prosecutors said.

In addition, the MBC program claimed that Koreans, many of whom have the MM genotype, are more genetically susceptible to the human variant of mad cow disease, even though a genotype would not be enough to determine this. What’s more, “The Producer’s Notebook” incorrectly argued that some of the ingredients in instant noodles, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics could lead people to become infected with mad cow disease, according to the prosecutors’ report.

Upon hearing the prosecution’s announcement, “The Producer’s Notebook” and its attorney fired back at the prosecution, saying, “The prosecution’s demand for an explanation is the same as the argument made by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in its civil suit (which was filed on....). Is the prosecution the proxy of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries?”

Jo Neung-hee, one of the program’s senior producers said, “I can’t understand what materials the prosecution wants to receive because we’ve already apologized for our errors in translation and have given a full explanation for our liberal translation (of the Vinson interview).” In response to the prosecution’s accusation that the MBC program led with sensational video footage and that information had been edited deliberately, Jo said, “How can the prosecution intervene in the way a program is edited?”

In a press release, the producers of “The Producer’s Notebook” said, “Although there were errors in translation and exaggeration about the risk of mad cow disease, there is no logic as to how the reports could have defamed the minister of food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries and others.”

The producers said that they “had done 120 percent of what the prosecution had wanted and had provided written statements from writers of ‘The Producer’s Notebook’ and other staff members. If a government agency repeatedly asks prosecutors to investigate a media report that goes against government policy and the prosecution demands that (journalists) submit materials or appear for questioning, the people’s right to know and the freedom of the press will be fundamentally damaged and the basis for the media’s survival will be significantly shaken,” the producers said.

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