Media figures are objecting to the Lee Myung-bak administration's detentionof a currently serving MBC TV producer Lee Chun-geun, formerly the producer of the MBC program “The Producer’s Notebook.” They are issuing statements urging for prosecutors to halt their "targeted and political investigation." The petition has received unprecedented assistance from high-ranking appointed executives at MBC, as well as journalists affiliated with the 44 companies in the Korea Communications Commission. MBC has expressed its dissatisfaction with the hasty detention of Lee and indicates that it may pursue legal measures in response.

In a series of statements issued Thursday evening and Friday morning, organizations such as the Korean Producers & Directors' Association, the Gwangju and South Jeolla Province chapters of the Broadcasting Producer Association of Korea, the producers' associations for MBS, EBS, CBS and OBS, and the Korean Independent Broadcasting Producers' Association criticized the detention. High-ranking producers at MBC also issued a statement saying, "We believe that the prosecutors' actions (in arresting Lee) originated from inappropriate political motives." They also underscored that the arrest was a "major challenge to freedom of the press and a total negation of the democratization of broadcasting achieved through the sacrifice and dedication of broadcasters in the previous era."

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