FBC Chief Offers to Quit Over Remarks on MBC
Kim Woo-ryong, chairman of the Foundation for Broadcasting Culture (FBC), has offered to resign Friday. His resignation came two days after he caused a stir with his remarks indicating that Cheong Wa Dae pressured MBC President Kim Jae-cheol to mop up "leftists" of the nation's second largest broadcasting company.
"I will step down from the board chairman post," he was quoted as saying by cable TV network YTN.
In an interview with Shindong A, a monthly magazine unit of DongA Ilbo, the FBC chief said that the MBC president removed the left-wing officials during a March 8 reshuffling of executive posts at the behest of the presidential house.
"The recent personnel reshuffle was not carried out by MBC President Kim Jae-chul alone. It was done after 'the big house' called him in and kicked him in the shin. It was made after he was beaten," he said in the interview published Wednesday.
"The big house" is interpreted as the presidential house by analysts and opposition parties.
The FBC Chairman also said that about "80 percent of leftists" at MBC had been cleared with the latest reshuffling. He also said he had planned to sack former MBC President Ohm Ki-young if he would not have stepped down voluntarily.
The board of the FBC, which holds a 70 percent controlling stake in MBC, has the right to appoint and fire the MBC president. The FBC, a non-profit organization which was established in 1988, is controlled by the Korea Communications Commission.
MBC 발언 관련 방문진 이사장 사의 표명
김우룡 방송문화진흥회 이사장이 금요일 사의를 표명했다. 그의 사임은 청와대가 김재철 MBC 사장에게 이 방송사 "좌파"를 소탕하라는 압력을 시사하는 발언으로 물의를 일으키고 난 2일만에 나왔다.
YTN 케이블 뉴스 채널을 통해 그는 "이사장직에서 사임하겠다"고 말했다.
동아일보 월간 자매지인 신동아 4월호와의 인터뷰에서 김 이사장은 3월 8일 MBC 간부진 인사에서 김사장이 청와대의 명을 받아 좌익 인사들을 쓸어냈다고 말했다.
그는 수요일 발행된 인터뷰에서 "이번 인사는 김재철 사장 혼자서 단행한 것이 아니다. '큰집'에서 불러 들여 쪼인트를 까고 난 후 있었다"고 말했다. '큰집'은 분석가들과 야당은 청와대로 해석했다.