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President Lee Myung-bak is set to begin regular radio addresses starting the morning of October 13. The broadcasts are already being criticized for being an “infringement on production autonomy” because stations will broadcast the addresses as delivered to them after being produced by the Blue House and without any editing.

The first address runs 8 minutes 30 seconds and discusses the financial crisis. It was recorded October 12 in the secretaries’ building on the Blue House grounds with the Blue House “public relations planning officer,” Park Hyung-joon, and other advisers in attendance.

The Blue House initially wanted to schedule radio addresses every Monday, but in response to unfavorable public opinion is considering having them every other week or only once a month, and having them broadcast in the middle of the week instead of on Mondays.

“The first address will be made available to all broadcasting companies that want to run it, but in the future we plan to settle on one broadcaster,” said a Blue House official.

Responding to the announcement, the National Union of Media Workers issued a statement saying that “while the Blue House says broadcasting companies will get to program the addresses themselves, almost no broadcasting company is going to have the capacity to refuse the Blue House’s orders when it is turning our society back a decade to the politics-by-public-security authoritarianism of the dictatorship era.”

“The administration has already seized control of KBS and is demanding surrender of MBC. Saying broadcasters will have control over programming is nothing more than a joke told by thugs,” the union’s statement said.

Kim Young-ho, the head of the People’s Coalition for Media Reform, said “in the new media era,” President Lee’s radio address will be “unilateral, government-made infusion-style public relations and a serious infringement on the editorial authority of broadcasting companies.”

“Broadcasters need to realize that the radio waves are the property of the people and absolutely must not accept this,” said Kim.

Yang Seung-dong, head of the “KBS Employee Action to Defend Public Broadcasting” said it is “intolerable to have the words of President Lee Myung-bak sent over the air unedited and unilaterally at a time when there is strong opposition to the administration’s seizure of control of the media.”

“We are going to take issue (with KBS) if it broadcasts the addresses,” said Yang.

Earlier, on October 10, KBS’s management met and decided to broadcast the address, but treat it as if it is a one-time special address to the nation. KBS will broadcast the address using the title “The President’s Address on the Financial Crisis,” and will run it at 7:15 a.m., immediately following the morning news on KBS Radio One.

“It is a serious situation because of the financial crisis, and so we decided to broadcast it because we see value in conveying what the president has to say about it,” said a KBS executive.

A Democratic Party spokesman has demanded that the party, as the largest opposition party in the National Assembly, be given time to issue a response.

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