Board Votes to Oust KBS President Jung
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The KBS board of directors Friday voted to sack President Jung Yun-joo over mismanagement and abuse of authority.
Six of the 11 board members voted for the dismissal with four leaving the room in protest.
The decision came after Jung took legal action against the demand from the state auditing agency to step down.
The Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea (BAI) said he should be fired for causing 150 billion won in losses in five years and abusing his authority in personnel mismanagement.
But Jung dismissed the announcement. ``I cannot accept the decision,'' Jung said in a statement issued after the meeting.
The board will formally ask President Lee Myung-bak to accept its decision to fire the ``recalcitrant'' Jung who was appointed under the liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration. His legal tenure ends in November next year.
President Lee is expected to name Jung's successor soon.
The ruling Grand National Party and the presidential office have complained that the nation's largest broadcaster has been ``unfriendly'' to the conservative government.
More than 200 KBS labor unionists tried to block the voting by rushing into the meeting room after clashing with 70 police officers in the building.
Outside the building, hundreds of progressive anti-Lee administration civic groups and citizens gathered in vain to block the voting. They waved slogans proclaiming ``protect the public media.''
Opposition parties also set out to support Jung. Democratic Party, Democratic Labor party and the Renewal of Korea Party said they would fight for Jung. ``Speaking of mismanagement, we think Lee Myung-bak is mismanaging the country. We could have asked for his dismissal a dozen times,'' DLP leader Kang Ki-gap said.
Chung Sye-kyun, chairman of the largest opposition DP, said ``It's just like going back to the military regime era. How dare they think of ousting the KBS president.''
The KBS president said under the current law, the President has no legal right to remove the president of the public broadcasting company.
His lawyers said the Broadcasting Law stipulates that the President only has the right to appoint the KBS president. Presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, however, claims the appointment right also includes the right to dismiss.
In the meantime, the prosecution, now investigating him for alleged breach of trust, will decide weather to indict him or not within next week. The KBS president has snubbed the prosecution's five calls to present himself for questioning. It has imposed overseas travel ban on him since Tuesday.