hankyoreh

a vice chief of Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office announces the indictment of producers and writers associated with PD Notebook’s investigative episode on mad cow disease at their office located in Seoul’s Seocho district

Public prosecutors investigating MBC “PD Notebook” documentary program producers and writers for an investigative report on mad cow disease aired on April 29, 2008 were issued an indictment without detention Thursday. In addition to charges of defamation against former Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun, prosecutors are also pressing charges of disrupting the operations of U.S. beef importers, which has led to an outpouring of criticism against what is being called an excessive investigation.

The Sixth Criminal Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO), headed by Jeon Hyeon-jun, booked PD Notebook senior producer Cho Neung-hee, age 48, producers Song Il-jun, age 51, Kim Bo-seul, age 32, Lee Chun-geun, age 33, and writer Kim Eun-hee, 38 without detention on charges of defamation and disruption of operations. The producers served on the PD Notebook production staff in 2008 when the program in question was broadcast.

“The PD Notebook producers exaggerated the dangers of mad cow disease from downer cows and presented the false information that Aretha Vinson died of the human form of mad cow disease after eating U.S. beef,” the prosecutors said. They also stated that the producers defamed the character of Minister Chung and Min Dong-seok, 57, then Deputy Minister of Agricultural Trade Policy for the Agriculture Ministry, by “distorting and exaggerating basic facts directly linked with the dangers of mad cow disease from U.S. beef.” Prosecutors added the episode’s comparison of the ministers to “pro-Japanese traitors” also represented defamation.

Jeong Byeong-du, the SPO senior prosecutor who directed the investigation, said that errors in the reporting “were not deemed to be trivial mistakes, but the result of a malicious intent or a blatant lack of fairness.” Prosecutors also disclosed content from e-mail written by Kim, claiming that producers distorted the broadcast based on internal political motives. Prosecutors also applied charges of disruption of operations, stating that the PD Notebook report led to damages of over 10 billion won in losses in participating stores and sales contracts for importers and sellers of U.S. beef.

Following the indictment, MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society released a statement in which they said, “The public prosecutors, who should be the guardians of human rights, democracy and the public good, are blindly following the government like marionettes.”

The National Union of Mediaworkers President Choi Sang-jae said, “As seen with the investigation into the press consumerism advertiser boycott, the investigation of the Minerva case, and so on, this ‘PD Notebook indictment’ also shows that the prosecutors have thoroughly become the ladies-in-waiting for the powers that be.” Choi added, “By gagging media outlets that oppose the prosecutors and administration, they are suppressing press freedoms and leading to self-censorship among journalists.”

Some 100 law professors from all over the country have made plans to issue a statement urging the prosecutors’ cessation of activities destructive to democracy on Friday with direct reference to the investigations of PD Notebook and the Korea Press Consumerism Organization’s advertiser boycott campaign. In the statement, they plan to say, “Expression of opinions critical of the government are being targeted for investigation because they receive popular support.” They will also declare, “The prosecutors’ stubborn attempts to suppress critics of the administration are merely dressed up in legal packaging and are no different from the actions of investigative bodies during the military dictatorship.”

Meanwhile, Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) Spokesperson Lee Dong-kwan says the prosecutors’ investigation “revealed without question that the ‘PD Notebook’ broadcast on mad cow disease was on the whole distorted and manipulated.” Lee added, “It is shocking, and I cannot contain my dismay.”

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