Lee Myung-bak administration presses against freedom of press

Posted on : 2009-03-27 12:31 KST Modified on : 2009-03-27 12:31 KST
After detaining MBC producer and arresting chairman of YTN union, the police hint at the search of MBC offices

 

Media professionals, media unions, and Amnesty International are responding to the sudden detention of MBC broadcasting producer Lee Chun-geun and searches of producer‘s homes who worked under him on the MBC program “The Producer’s Notebook.” Lee‘s detention follows prosecutors earlier arrest of Roh Jong-myeon, chairman of the 24-hour cable news network Yonhap Television News (YTN) union.  

 

 Detective Division Six of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office searched the homes of six of the production staff for the MBC program “The Producer‘s Notebook,” which last year aired a special on the risks of mad cow in U.S. beef on March 26.

 

 Earlier in the same day prosecutors had sent former lead program producer Jo Neung-hui, three other producers and two writers written demands for them to appear for questioning. When they did not appear, prosecutors sent detectives to search their homes for computers and documents relating to the program.

  

 Having arrested Lee late Wednesday, prosecutors say they questioned him about the circumstances in producing the special on mad cow and U.S. beef, and whether he “deliberately distorted the facts.”

  

 “The accused failed to respond to summons on three occasions last year and they openly said they would refused to comply this time around, too,” said prosecutor Jeong Byeong-du. “We determined that issuing additional summons would be meaningless at this point.”

  

 It is possible prosecutors may decide to search MBC offices, since officials are saying they “need to see the original unedited tapes” of video that was shot for the program to “determine whether they deliberately distorted things.”

  

 In response to the prosecution’s actions, producers assigned to MBC‘s current events programs began refusing to produce programming early Thursday, March 26. A group of roughly 30 employees began offering protection to the producers Jo Neung-hui, Song Il-jun, and Kim Boseul, all of whom worked under Lee Chun-geun on the “Producer’s Notebook” program. MBC‘s union plans to hold protests in front of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office on March 28-30.

  

 According to YTN, the world’s largest organization of media professionals, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), issued a statement on the same day, “alarmed by the ongoing detention of a senior media union leader in South Korea, and fears management of the YTN broadcasting company and the authorities are colluding to disrupt negotiations to resolve a long-running industrial dispute.”

  

 The National Union of Media Workers also declared in a statement that it will begin a campaign to unseat the administration of President Lee Myung-bak, an “illegitimate power” and work to “establish a truly democratic government.”

  

 The Broadcasting Producer Association of Korea is taking a particularly hard-line position, saying “the war has already started so we are going to see it to its end.”

 

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