» Kim In-kyu, the new President of KBS, delivers his inaugural speech in the KBS Hall located in Yeouido, Nov. 24. The inauguration ceremony proceeded without lights as the union members turned off the lights and the internal feed in protest of the new parachute president.

Korea Digital Media Industry Association (KoDiMA) Chairman Kim In-kyu, a former campaign aide to President Lee Myung-bak, assumed office as the new president of KBS on Tuesday amid fierce opposition from the KBS union. In the address he gave upon taking office, Kim said although some are claiming he came to take over KBS for the Lee administration, he has actually come to protect KBS from political and capitalist power. He pledged to raise viewer fees and to enact daring reform of its evening news programs to reassure viewers of the station’s changes.

Kim arrived in front of KBS in the morning and attempted to enter his office with the support of security guards, but failed to enter the building due to the strong resistance of an estimated 250 KBS unionists. Kim, who arrived at 9:47 a.m., made his way to the building with the assistance of about 80 company security guards. Unionists there attempted to stop him and became entangled with KBS executives and security guards, and a huge clash ensued. After several failed attempts to enter the building, he got into his car some 10 minutes after he arrived and drove off, and his address, scheduled to be held at 10 a.m. in the press room on the 1st floor of KBS headquarters, was delayed.

Meanwhile, Kim made a second attempt to enter the office, which was successful. He appeared again at 1:25 p.m. before the union members could line up and succeeded in entering the room where he was scheduled to give his address. Kim entered the building under the protection of company team leaders, who were ordered by their superiors to assemble in front of the steps. Entering through the Viewer Project Team door, through which he could directly access the address venue rather than the front door, he left the unionists in the cold while the blinds were lowered in the hall to the west leading to the TV Hall. Some of the unionists forced open the blinds and took over the control room on the third floor, cutting off the internal live broadcast of the address, but Kim pushed through with his statement anyway.

In his address, Kim counted the firming up of public broadcasting among his tasks facing him as the new KBS president, and announced a plan to boost viewer fees next year to secure a financial base. He also made a mention of daring reform of the news, but gave no specifics. Finally, he announced a plan for “free multichannel digital TV” with seven stations, adding a 24-hour news channel to the existing six.

At a rally held in Democracy Plaza in front of the KBS headquarters, Gang Dong-gu, KBS union head said in a speech that a ’campaign aide of Lee Myung-bak‘ had entered the company presidential office while nobody was looking. He urged unionists to participate in an effort to block Kim from entering his office the next day and to join a vote from Thursday on whether to hold a general strike. Some unionists, however, strongly protested that strong measures, such as occupying the president’s office, were not being taken.

KBS directors recommended by opposition parties issued a statement, saying that a former campaign aide to the president becoming KBS president shows that the media’s role to criticize and restrain presidential policy has been weakened. They are calling on Kim to voluntarily resign.

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