KBS forced to drop news on presidential secretary

By Lee Hyo-sik

Staff reporter

Cheong Wa Dae is suspected of pressuring KBS to drop a negative report on one of its presidential secretaries early this week, renewing a year-long controversy that the Lee Myung-bak administration has been gagging its critics and exerting undue influence over media outlets to sway public opinion in its favor.

According to the KBS Media Workers Union Thursday, the summary of a news report, titled "35 percent of government officials who were former university professors suspected of publishing same academic papers more than twice," was initially scheduled to air on the KBS 9 o'clock evening news on May 4.

But the news clip was not aired after a KBS production managing director ordered a reporter who prepared the clip to drop it several hours before the broadcast.

Those who were suspected of publishing academic papers multiple times in different journals include senior presidential secretary for state affairs planning Park Jae-wan, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Hyun Byung-chul and Statistics Korea Commissioner Yi In-shill.

The union said the managing director called the reporter at around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday and ordered him to leave out the news report concerning Park, saying that the alleged academic irregularities took place in 1992 and 1993.

Before serving as an aide to President Lee in February 2008, Park was a professor of Sungkyunkwan University and worked at the Ministry of Finance after passing a high-ranking civil servant exam.

The issue was also initially to be dealt with extensively in the following news program at 10 p.m. the same night. But the director told the program production manager and the reporter to remove parts regarding Park. If not, he said he would exercise his authority as managing director to stop the entire program from going on air. But the reporter refused to do so and the program was aired as scheduled.

In the program, Park said it was a common practice to publish academic theses multiple times in different journals in the early 1990s, stressing he did not profit from it or use it to promote his achievements.

According to union officials, he also admitted to the reporter on the phone that he published the same paper more than once, saying it was no big deal at the time. He then asked not to be criticized too harshly.

When asked about his relationship with the KBS managing director by the reporter, Park reportedly said they were close friends. The two went to the same high school in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province.

Following the incident, the managing director at the center of the controversy has said that the reporter and the new program managers failed to correctly describe exactly what happened, adding he will first consult with those involved in the matter and issue a statement.

However, union officials said it has become impossible for KBS to broadcast a negative news reports even on a presidential secretary, lamenting that KBS's media independence has been severely compromised under the Lee administration.

청와대, KBS 뉴스 삭제 지시 의혹

청와대가 KBS뉴스에 압력을 가해 박재완 청와대 국정기획 수석에 대한 부정적 내용의 뉴스 보도가 삭제되었다는 의혹을 받고 있다.

KBS 언론노조에 따르면 5월 4일 KBS 9시 뉴스에서 '교수 출신 공직자 35% 논문 이중게재 의혹'이라는 보도가 잡혀있었지만, 뉴스 리포트에서 빠지게 됐다. 현병철 국가인권위원장과 박재완 청와대 국정기획수석 등을 포함한 고위공직자의 논문 이중게재 문제를 추적한 내용의 보도였다.

박재완 수석은 논문 이중게재 논란에 대해 이를 통해 득 본 게 없고,당시에는 큰 문제가 아니었으니 너무 나무라지 말아 달라고 전화 인터뷰에서 말했다.

KBS 노조는 이번 사태에 대해 청와대 수석 하나 보도하기가 불가능해 졌으며, 이명박 정부 이후 언론의 독립성이 크게 훼손됐다고 비난했다.