People Power Party: "Court Allows Only 2 of 9 Kim Geon-hee's Statements in Broadcast Ban Request"

[Asia Economy Reporter Geum Bo-ryeong] The People Power Party announced on the 14th that they applied for a broadcast ban on a total of 9 statements made by Kim Gun-hee, the spouse of presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol, during a 7-hour phone conversation with a reporter, and the court allowed the broadcast of only 2 of these statements.

The Seoul Western District Court partially accepted Kim’s injunction request against MBC for a broadcast ban, allowing the broadcast of parts excluding ongoing investigations related to Kim, and everyday conversations unrelated to Kim’s political views.

However, since the court did not disclose the specific parts that were banned, it was unclear to what extent the broadcast was permitted. The People Power Party stated that the court accepted a significant portion of Kim’s request.

Lee Yang-su, senior spokesperson of the campaign headquarters, revealed in a message sent to reporters that Kim applied for an injunction on a total of 9 statements.

Lee said, “Kim Gun-hee applied for a preliminary injunction to ban the broadcast of 3 statements requested by MBC reporter Jang In-su for rebuttal reporting, as she could not specifically remember statements made several months ago, and 6 statements that were so-called circulated via text messages.”

He added, “Regarding the 6 statements circulated via text messages, since it is impossible to verify whether such statements were actually made, they were included in the scope of the preliminary injunction application, so it is judged that they differ from the actual statements.”

He continued, “Although it is unknown whether these statements were included in the actual recording file, according to the court’s decision, 2 of the 9 statements cannot be broadcast, 5 statements were stated by MBC during the trial process as not being included in the broadcast content, and the remaining 2 statements were permitted by the court to be broadcast.”

Lee also said, “Furthermore, the court decided not to allow the broadcast of statements related to ongoing investigations.”

He explained, “MBC agreed during the trial process not to broadcast private content between family members or spouses, and stated that only Kim Gun-hee’s public views on various issues would be broadcast.”

He added that the annex of the court’s decision containing the 9 statements was leaked to reporters through MBC’s legal counsel, and that strong legal measures would be taken.

Additionally, he requested, “Mentioning, distributing, or reporting on the parts banned from broadcast constitutes a violation of the court’s decision and may result in legal liability, so we ask that the media refrain from reporting or distributing such content.”