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Lee Jin-sook, the newly appointed head of the Korea Communications Commission, speaks at her inauguration ceremony, held at the government complex in Gwacheon, on July 31, 2024. (pool photo)

A court has ruled to suspend the validity of board of director appointments at the Foundation for Broadcast Culture (FBC) — the majority shareholder in the MBC network — that have been made during Lee Jin-sook’s period as chairperson of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC).

The court determined that it was in violation of the law to appoint FBC board members in a KCC meeting attended solely by two ruling-party-nominated members, when the organization is supposed to operate on a consensus-based system with members nominated by different parties.

The unlawful nature of the KCC’s “two-person rule” had already been recognized by a Supreme Court decision in a case involving FBC Chairperson Kwon Tae-sun. In spite of that, President Yoon Suk-yeol defied the judiciary’s conclusions in his attempt to seize control over MBC — which has been critical of his administration — after previously doing so with KBS.

The result was this humiliation.

The Seoul Administrative Court approved a request submitted by former MBC members asking for the suspension of a decision made by Lee and KCC Vice Chairperson Kim Tae-kyu on Monday to appoint six successor directors.

Roughly an hour after Lee received her certificate of appointment from Yoon on July 31, she and Kim voted to appoint directors on the FBC and KBS boards. This was a rough-and-ready vote that included no interviews or vetting of the applicants’ political party membership or possible fraudulent resumes. 

Commenting on this, the court said, “The KCC is supposed to achieve its legislative aims of freedom of broadcasting, public service, and the public interest by reflecting political diversity in its membership.”

“The board of director appointments in this case were based on reviews and decisions by just two commission members, which raises concerns of undermining the legislative aims sought by the KCC Act,” it added, concluding that the appointment went against the aims of the commission’s establishment, which involved making decisions through consensus by a committee consisting of five members appointed by the ruling and opposition parties.

The unlawful nature of these two-person decisions by the KCC was affirmed by the judiciary through renewed appeals in a case last August involving a request to suspend the dismissal of Kwon Tae-sun from her post as chairperson.

After the Yoon administration took office, previous KCC Chairperson Han Sang-hyuk was forced out, leaving the commission operating as a three-person system. It has been run with just two members since Lee Dong-kwan’s period as chairperson.

The situation is a case of abusing the KCC Act’s lack of quorum provisions — a fact that the court rightly observed at the time.

In the latest decision, the court commented that the “lack of quorum provisions is actually based on the assumption that meetings will be conducted with five members.”

With his successive appointments of Lee Dong-kwan, Kim Hong-il, and now Lee Jin-sook to lead the broadcasting watchdog, Yoon has been attempting to put MBC under the same kind of control he already wields over the KBS and YTN networks.

This court judgment clearly showed that his attempts are in violation of the freedoms and public service role of broadcasting. It also amounts to an admonition that he ought to walk the “liberal democracy” walk rather than just talking the talk.

Yoon needs to stop these unlawful attempts to control public broadcasting and focus his energies on the people’s livelihoods instead.

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