hankyoreh

The IP address of a critical comment attached to a posted statement on the homepage of the National Union of Media Workers has turned out to be from a computer located in the Cheong Wa Dae.

The union, ahead of a public hearing on revisions to the executive ordinance of the Broadcast Law, posted on its homepage August 14 a statement entitled, “Broadcast Communication Committee Members, Appear and Debate at the Hearing.”

An Internet user that uses the identity “Jungangin” criticized the statement in a comment left at 5:04 p.m. on August 14 in which he said there was no need for the committee members to attend the hearing since the deliberation process was taking place transparently. He said the union, which was hiding behind the mask of being media while thinking only of their rice bowls, should remove their masks and get jobs.

When the union inquired as to the IP address of the user on the following day, however, the address’s user institution turned out to be the presidential secretariat. Jang Bo-im, an administrator of the union homepage, said she searched for the IP address since it was rare for users to comment on union statements and it appeared the user knew quite a bit about the union’s affairs. She was shocked, however, when the address turned out to be from a computer within the presidential secretariat.

Union Chairman Choe Sang-jae said the matter plainly reveals the Lee Myung-bak administration’s unethical and irregular way of thinking. He said that if the staff member who left the comment is not reprimanded, he will consider legal action.

About this, a Cheong Wa Dae official said it would find out what happened, but that the union, which was tracking the IP address, would probably know better the facts of the matter.

Meanwhile, in the statement, the union criticizes the revision bill to the executive ordinance of the Broadcast Law, saying that the National Assembly’s Broadcast Communications Committee had supported a bad revision that unreasonably tries to change the face of broadcast media all at once and ignores the principle of fair competition in the broadcast market. The statement said there has never been debate on the planned relaxation of standards for big corporations to enter the terrestrial broadcasting, news and comprehensive programming channel markets, and called on the committee members to come to the hearing immediately.

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