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President Yoon Suk-yeol fields questions from the press while heading into the presidential office in Yongsan on Sept. 26. (presidential pool photo)

On Monday, video journalists from the presidential office press pool put out a statement in which they said footage showing profanity-laced remarks by President Yoon Suk-yeol while in New York had “not been distorted or edited.”

Meanwhile, the journalists expressed “concern about attacks and reports slandering video journalists from a certain broadcaster,” likely referring to attacks by the ruling party and certain media aimed at MBC, the first outlet to report on the president’s controversial comments.

The group of video journalists released a statement on Monday titled “Stop Distorting the Legitimate Coverage of Presidential Office Video Journalists.”

According to these reporters, Yoon’s attendance at the Global Fund Seventh Replenishment Conference on Wednesday was scheduled at the very last minute at a point when a summit between Yoon and Biden had still not been finalized.

“The broadcasting company that covered the remarks did not even know they would be going to this place (the Global Fund event) until a few minutes before it started,” the statement read.

This explanation seems to show awareness on the part of the reporters that the ruling party and others are attacking MBC after it became known that the pool reporter who captured the remarks is employed by the broadcaster.

The journalists reported that they were unaware there was any problematic comment recorded at the time, given how loud it was in the conference hall.

“Instead, we became aware of the content [of the footage] because the [presidential office’s] external affairs department asked us to check the footage,” the reporters stated.

“Upon checking the footage, the external affairs department asked us if we could ‘do something’ about it so that it would not be reported, but the video journalists did not accept this request and it was decided that each broadcasting company would make their own choice of whether or not to report on the remarks,” the group of journalists explained in their statement.

The reporters also said they were unaware of how a screen capture of the video spread on social media and elsewhere before the official news embargo on the footage was lifted by the presidential office.

“There are also reports criticizing and targeting reporters [from the presidential office press pool] for violating the embargo and leaking the video, but this is the wrong perspective,” the reporters stated.

Regarding the statement by a presidential office official calling for the “authenticity” of the video to be examined, the video journalists argued it was “questionable” what exactly this official meant since these reporters were there on the official request of the presidential office and conducting their coverage in a legitimate way.

“Even though it was reconfirmed that the video was filmed by the [presidential office] press pool, the video reporters who covered the video felt terrible due to remarks [from the presidential office, accusing them of] ‘false editing and distortion' at a later briefing,” the reporters said.

“There have been no proper measures taken regarding the issues connected with [the president’s] remarks and the presidential office causing public confusion and disappointment to the public through their explanations,” the video press pool said, expressing “concern over the stirring of unnecessary political conflict and controversy.”

Finally, the video reporters also demanded a “thorough investigation” to find out the truth about the distortion of their press coverage and how the video was released before the lifting of the coverage embargo.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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