MBC President Ohm Refuses to Step Down
By Cho Jae-hyon
Staff Reporter
MBC President Ohm Ki-young has pledged to reform the nation's second largest public broadcaster for fair broadcasting and efficient management, refusing to accept its largest shareholder's demand that he step down.
Ohm has been under pressure to quit from the Foundation for Broadcast Culture ― the largest shareholder in the broadcaster with a 70-percent stake ― and the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) for taking responsibility for the social rift and confusion caused by its PD Notebook program on U.S. beef imports.
"I, as the chief of a public broadcasting company, will carry through reforms for fairer broadcasting and more efficient management," Ohm said at an expanded board meeting Monday.
He pledged to set up a committee to oversee the fairness of broadcasting, with the committee comprised of officials from within and outside the company.
Ohm also called for some "sacrifice and pains" from the labor union for successful restructuring, indicating that he would take steps to remove collective bargaining clauses allowing the labor union to partially intervene in management.
In the meantime, former KBS President Jung Yun-joo said in an open letter to an online news provider that Ohm should never quit.
"If you offer to resign because of this or that humiliation, what would happen to MBC, which remains as the last bastion of broadcasting? You must stick to your post until you are picked out by a crane," Jung said.
Jung, whose liberal political leanings have led to uncomfortable relations with the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration, was sacked by President Lee last year for poor management.