hankyoreh

Sep. 6. (by Lee Jeong-woo

The chairman of the Foundation for Broadcast Culture (FBC) board of directors responded on Oct. 7 to a growing controversy over what many are calling politically and ideologically biased remarks at a recent parliamentary audit.

“My duty is to correct a situation in which the media has taken on a left-wing bias,” chairman Ko Young-joo reiterated in response to the reaction to the remarks, which prompted the Seoul Bar Association to call for his resignation. The FBC is responsible for administering and overseeing operations at the MBC television network.

Cho Woo-suk, one of the directors at the KBS network, described Ko as “one of the most righteous men of our times” in a recent opinion piece and interview. Many are now voicing concern about the strong ideological bias in the boards of two public television networks that are ostensibly supposed to regard “fairness” and “objectivity” as key values.

Speaking in an Oct. 7 telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, Ko indicated that he perceives his role in the FBC as correcting “left-wing bias.”

“The aim of my nomination as an FBC director was to correct left-wing bias in the media,” he declared.

Ko also commented on his controversial remarks during the audit, including a reference to late former President Roh Moo-hyun as a “modified communist.”

“There has been no change in my position,” he affirmed.

Ko went on to comment on the content of an external recommendation for his bid to serve as an FBC director, which read, “Our society is currently facing a media war between pro-North Korea forces and patriots.”

“I can’t agree with the use of an expression as extreme as ‘war,’ but I agree with the gist of it,” he said.

On Oct. 5, KBS director Cho Woo-suk printed a column titled “Who Is Demonizing Ko Young-joo?” on the conservative website “Media Pen,” where he previously served as a guest editorial committee member.

“He [Ko] is not someone who should be facing the poison arrows of denunciation. He is one of the righteous people of our era,” Cho wrote.

Cho also called Ko “someone who has thrown his entire being into holding up the collapsing seawall of South Korean ideology.”

Remarking on a defamation suit filed against Ko by opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy leader Moon Jae-in, Cho wrote, “Beyond the matter of judicial justice, this could be a touchstone for whether we are going to overcome the crisis in this country‘s system or accelerate it.”

Cho was appointed as a KBS board member in September.

“It is not ‘biased thinking’ to talk about the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea, and the opposition’s demands for [Ko’s] resignation are nothing more than a political attack,” he said in an Oct. 7 telephone interview.

He also defended Ko’s remarks calling former President Roh a “modified communist.”

“Mr. Ko’s determination was accurate. You could also see [Roh] as a people’s democrat, at least from our standpoint,” he said. “It’s common sense.”

Kim Eon-gyeong, secretary-general of the group Citizens’ Coalition for Democratic Media, criticized the remarks by both Ko and Cho.

“We can no longer stand by while people who don‘t even recognize their own biased thinking hold board of governors positions at public broadcasters for whom fairness and objective are supposed to be key values,” Kim said.

Media and civic groups are currently planning a press conference on Oct. 12 to demand Ko’s resignation.

By Lee Jung-gook and Choi Won-hyung, staff reporters

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