Board Directors Vote to Oust KBS Chief

The board of directors for national public broadcaster KBS voted to sack the company's president on Friday, a KBS spokesman said, clearing the way for the conservative Lee Myung-bak government to name a new head.

Jung Yun-joo, a liberal appointed by then President Roh Moo-hyun in 2003, has been resisting calls for his resignation, condemning the pressure as government attempts at media control.

The voting was called for by the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea, which charged Jung on Wednesday with poor management and abuse of his authority to appoint personnel in the nation's most influential broadcaster.

"All of the remaining six directors voted in favor of President Jung Yun-joo's dismissal," Ahn Hyun-gi, a KBS spokesman, said. Five of the 11 directors abstained in protest and left the building.

About 200 KBS union members tried to physically block the voting, pushing and pulling with police officers who sealed off all gates leading into the meeting hall. Outside the headquarters, hundreds of citizens and activists rallied for and against Jung's ouster, chanting such slogans as "Protect public broadcaster!" or

"Jung Yun-joo out!"

Jung still has a chance to stay on, with his second term officially ending in November 2009. He filed an injunction on Thursday to nullify the state audit board's resignation call. If the court finds the audit board's move unlawful, as Jung claims, the KBS directors' decision will have to be reconsidered.

"The KBS presidency is not a personal issue," Jung said in a public statement, but a means to "ensure the independence of a public broadcaster. It is already widely known what kind of pressure, criticism and blackmail I have faced to make me resign."

Jung's case reveals the ongoing friction between the conservative Lee government and Korean broadcasters, which have been largely critical of Lee's pro-U.S., pro-business policies.

Another major broadcaster, MBC, is waging a court battle with the Agriculture Ministry, which filed a suit over MBC's critical coverage of Seoul's controversial agreement to lift a ban on U.S. beef imports. In addition, cable news channel YTN is suffering deepening internal strife over its new chief, Gu Bon-hong, a former member of Lee's presidential campaign appointed to the top job by board directors in July.

The KBS vote on Friday gave Lee the nod to appoint a new chief whose political stance will prove to be more friendly towards the conservative government. Still, Lee faces severe criticism at home and abroad.

The International Federation of Journalists condemned the Lee government, with its general secretary Aidan White saying, "There is a feeling that the bosses of Korean media are being systematically replaced by government cronies."

"This is frustrating. It makes me regret my choice to enter this field of study," Won Yong-jin, a mass communications professor at Sogang University and leading critic of the Korean media.

"The government's ruling party has a majority in the parliament, and in such circumstances it is the role of the media to take a critical stance and keep the government power in check to serve the interest of the people, their readers and their audience. It is a very unfortunate thing for all of us that the government

tries to bring the media on its side," he said.

Chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, Chung Sye-kyun, berated Lee for "backtracking to the military regime" of the 1980s.

After a months-long probe, the audit board concluded that Jung is responsible for causing the broadcaster up to 150 billion won ($150 million) in losses over the past five years, adding, however, that he was "not guilty of any personal irregularity."

In a separate investigation into Jung's alleged mismanagement, prosecutors have imposed a travel ban on the KBS chief, blocking his scheduled trip to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Jung, who was once named one of the most respected figures by young Korean journalists, has drawn mixed responses during his KBS presidency. His controversial 2006 decision to drop a tax refund suit and reconcile on a modest reimbursement added fuel to accusations of his "incompetency."

Jung began his journalism career with the Dong-a Ilbo in 1970 and was fired and jailed for protesting the then military regime's control of the newspaper in 1980. After studying in the United States, he returned and worked with the progressive Hankyoreh from 1989 before entering KBS. (Yonhap)