[Asia Economy Reporter Kim So-young] Amid ongoing controversy over the appearance fees of broadcaster Kim Eo-jun, host of TBS's 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory,' Kim Nam-guk, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated, "I also appeared on broadcasts through verbal agreements."
On the 21st, Kim Nam-guk posted on his Facebook, "For several years, I regularly appeared on numerous programs such as TV Chosun, Channel A, MBN, MBC, SBS, KBS, and JTBC, but I did not sign any contracts before appearing," he revealed.
He added, "As a customary practice, all contracts were handled verbally," and said, "Only about 1 to 2 years ago did KBS start requiring written contracts, which I complied with."
This appears to be a response to Park Dae-chul, a member of the People Power Party, who pointed out that Kim Eo-jun signed a formal contract when he hosted SBS's 'Black House' in 2018, despite Kim's claim that verbal agreements are standard in the broadcasting industry.
Earlier, Park stated, "Even private broadcasters signed contracts and paid appearance fees to Kim Eo-jun," and demanded an audit from the Board of Audit and Inspection, questioning, "How can TBS, which receives 40 billion KRW annually in taxes, pay high appearance fees without any contracts?"
Meanwhile, the People Power Party demanded disclosure of payment details and payment accounts, alleging that TBS has paid Kim approximately 2.3 billion KRW since September 2016 at 2 million KRW per episode without any contracts.
In response, TBS stated, "Verbal agreements are customary. Kim Eo-jun's News Factory is the number one radio current affairs program in South Korea in terms of listenership. Since the program's advertising revenue accounts for about 10% of TBS's total sales, we have treated it accordingly," and added, "We cannot disclose account information as it is personal information."
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