News

Reporters and cameramen of the Korean commercial broadcaster MBC TV walked out on January 25 to call for fair reporting rights. Today all MBV TV workers are on strike and call for the resignation of MBC TV President, Kim Jae-Cheol.



These actions are the angry responses of media workers to intimidation and interference in editorial independence by MBC TV President, Kim Jae-Cheol, a close ally of President Lee Myung-Bak. This is the second time in 24 months that the union leads a strike action to fight for freedom of speech in at this important broadcaster. Following the last strike action in 2010, the union’s President Lee Geun-Haeng and many colleagues were dismissed.



Eventually 170 MBC TV news reporters and cameramen walked out from 6:00 a.m. on January 25, just right after the Lunar New Year Holiday, and staged demonstration in the lobby of MBC TV station in Yoido, Seoul. They reject any kind of news production unless two heads of News Department who are responsible for the intimidations and censorship of reporting resign. Already in 2009, Shin Kyung-Min, the broadcaster’s key and most popular news-anchor, was forced to leave his position.



Mr. Park Sung-Ho, leader of Reporters, said, “We will no longer endure to make bad news, which are a mockery of the people. The minimum ethical code of conduct of journalists is to objective, good-quality and independent news.”



The union President, Chung Young-Ha read out a statement today at the start of the strike action: “We were no longer to report the real fact to the society and failed to e a historical observer through the window of MBC TV PD Journal program. Today we on behalf of all MBC TV employees express our deepest apology for our mismanagement to all Korean people.



If we continue this system through the General Election in April and the Presidential Election in December this year, we have to cheat the people and survive as dishonest broadcasting people in our society, In this context, now we are standing up to fight against this mismanagement.



UNI MEI supports the action of its affiliate. UNI MEI President, Gerry Morrissey (United Kingdom) said in a statement “Political pressure on news reporting is a universal challenge to freedom of speech in today’s information society. We need to resist to all attempts of political control over news. I commend the action of our Korean affiliates, whom we will support in their fight against these intimidations of our colleagues and the interference in their editorial independence.