By You Soo-sun
The revelation of a text message attempting to suppress the ongoing strike at Korea's major broadcaster MBC is drawing fierce backlash. In the text, delivered Wednesday, its chief editor Moon Ho-chul threatened his employees by alluding to possible financial and legal repercussions for the participants of the strike.
"There will be a clear distinction between employees who work for the company's interest and those who do not," the text read. For those who work, it continued, there will be "compensatory rewards" while those who do not "will most definitely be subject to civil lawsuits for disrupting the workplace."
The text is interpreted as the management's attempt to suppress the boycott which has been gaining momentum over the past month. Beginning with 10 producers of the company's popular investigative program "PD Note" on July 21, the boycott has spread to about 350 employees following the revelation of an "MBC blacklist" on Aug. 7. Here, journalists were categorized into different groups based on their involvement in the 2012 strike, relations with the labor union and loyalty to the company. The list was allegedly used for personnel matters.
There soon may follow an all-out strike ― in which all of the programs at the station will come to a halt ― depending on a vote that began Thursday and will proceed until Tuesday. If the vote succeeds, it will be the first strike in five years. Six journalists who were dismissed back then as a consequence of the strike are still awaiting a final court ruling.
The revelation of a text message attempting to suppress the ongoing strike at Korea's major broadcaster MBC is drawing fierce backlash. In the text, delivered Wednesday, its chief editor Moon Ho-chul threatened his employees by alluding to possible financial and legal repercussions for the participants of the strike.
"There will be a clear distinction between employees who work for the company's interest and those who do not," the text read. For those who work, it continued, there will be "compensatory rewards" while those who do not "will most definitely be subject to civil lawsuits for disrupting the workplace."
The text is interpreted as the management's attempt to suppress the boycott which has been gaining momentum over the past month. Beginning with 10 producers of the company's popular investigative program "PD Note" on July 21, the boycott has spread to about 350 employees following the revelation of an "MBC blacklist" on Aug. 7. Here, journalists were categorized into different groups based on their involvement in the 2012 strike, relations with the labor union and loyalty to the company. The list was allegedly used for personnel matters.
There soon may follow an all-out strike ― in which all of the programs at the station will come to a halt ― depending on a vote that began Thursday and will proceed until Tuesday. If the vote succeeds, it will be the first strike in five years. Six journalists who were dismissed back then as a consequence of the strike are still awaiting a final court ruling.
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