KCSC Decides Sanctions on 506 Broadcast Programs Last Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The Korea Communications Standards Commission announced on the 23rd that it decided on 506 sanctions against broadcasting programs last year.

Among them, three broadcasting programs received fines, the highest level of disciplinary action under the Broadcasting Act. By type of broadcast, terrestrial broadcasting accounted for 141 cases, general programming and news channels for 138 cases, and PP (Program Provider) and SO (System Operator) for 227 cases.

Looking at the reasons for sanctions, in the case of terrestrial broadcasting, violations of objectivity were the most frequent with 28 cases. Other violations included advertising effect violations with 17 cases, indirect advertising violations with 15 cases, audience level violations with 12 cases, and gender equality violations with 11 cases. For general programming and news channels, objectivity violations were 48 cases, human rights protection violations 16 cases, broadcasting language violations 14 cases, advertising effect violations 10 cases, and gender equality violations 8 cases.

The private broadcasting program in the Busan and Gyeongnam region, "KNN News Eye," received two fines of 15 million won each for manipulating a reporter’s voice to make it appear as an anonymous interview. This is the first time a terrestrial broadcast has received the highest level of disciplinary action, a fine. Additionally, "KBS News Special Report" broadcast a wildfire disaster special report, falsely showing a reporter in Gangneung as if they were at the wildfire site in Goseong. A legal sanction of "disciplinary action against the relevant broadcasting program personnel" was imposed.

Furthermore, sanctions related to human rights protection totaled 28 cases, an increase of 16 cases (133%) compared to the average of 12 cases per year during the 3rd committee term (June 2014?June 2017). Sanctions related to gender equality also increased by 15 cases (167%) to 24 cases compared to 9 cases during the 3rd committee term.