Prosecution Asks PD Notebook to Hand In Original Recordings
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The prosecution asked MBC TV Thursday to hand over the original recordings made by its investigative program PD Notebook, as part of an investigation into whether the program intentionally manipulated information on American beef.
The request was made for the April 29 airing regarding American beef and its possible relation to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the possible human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease. The requested items include the original film of the Humane Society of The United States' ``downer'' cow in English and its Korean translation; the full interview clips of the late Aretha Vinson's mother and her doctor; scripts and translations; and other material.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said, ``We need to see the whole 870 minutes of original film before editing to see whether they intentionally took out very specific parts to support a story of their own.''
The investigation is a result of the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries filing civil and criminal charges against the program directors. They said the program exaggerated the risks of mad cow disease and its relevance to the import of U.S. beef. In its April edition, it reported that Vinson, who died on April 9 from neurodegenerative disease symptoms, was suspected of contracting vCJD.
It was later announced by the U.S. Center for Disease Control that Vinson did not die of the disease. Some experts say that there is no confirmed link between cattle with downer symptoms and BSE.
The program ignited candlelit protests against American beef imports and President Lee Myung-bak. The protests began with just a few hundred young students in central Seoul but after the program, the number jumped to tens of thousands of citizens as well as religious leaders.
MBC said it hasn't decided whether to hand over the information or not. It says that handing over the tape would go against the principle of the protection of sources who contributed to the making of the program.
The investigation caused much stir, with many people criticizing the government for trying to ``tame'' the media through lawsuits. MBC reported in May that the ``downer'' symptom could have had something other than BSE and there was the possibility that Vinson died of another disease but her mother strongly suspected vCJD.
A few weeks later the directors admitted that mistakes were made in translating medical terminology and that a presenter had given incorrect commentary, but that nothing was intentional.
The government's reaction of filing a lawsuit has invited criticism. Han Hak-soo, a representative of program directors at MBC said there were other ways the government or any other organization could deal with misleading reports. ``You should file a petition to the Press Arbitration Commission, not a criminal court,'' he was quoted as saying to KBS.
The Association of Producers defined the government's movement as a backlash and vowed to fight against alleged ``oppression.''