People Power Party Criticizes "YTN Preparing Broadcast for Lee Jae-myung's Election Victory"
The video titled 'Citizen Desk - Epilogue Y' uploaded on the official YTN YouTube channel on the 20th. / Photo by YTN, screenshot from the 'Citizen Desk' broadcast
[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] YTN exposed graphics on air that suggested the election of Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, prompting YTN to clarify that "the vote percentages were not displayed with any specific candidate's victory in mind."
On the 20th, YTN introduced the preview of the vote counting broadcast process in the 'Epilogue Y' video uploaded on its official YouTube channel. At this time, the screen displayed an image confirming Lee Jae-myung's election with 50% alongside the subtitle "YTN Avengers 'Election Team'," the highlight of the election broadcast.
In response, the People Power Party's Fair Broadcasting Monitoring Team issued a statement saying, "The election broadcast team's office walls were plastered with graphic materials showing candidate Lee Jae-myung far ahead of candidate Yoon Seok-youl by a large margin, and this was broadcast as is," criticizing, "YTN's election broadcast team was not preparing for the presidential election broadcast but was preparing for Lee Jae-myung's victory broadcast."
Regarding this, YTN explained, "The election team arbitrarily entered numbers while comparing graphic formats and did not input them with any intention," adding, "The broadcast showed the process of preparing for all possible scenarios."
YTN further clarified that besides the chart assuming candidate Lee's victory, there were also graphics showing candidate Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party leading Lee by more than three times with 26.4% of the vote in Seoul, or a graphic where candidates Lee, Yoon, and Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party each received 35%, totaling 105%.
YTN stated, "The production team humbly accepted the concerns raised on internet communities immediately after the broadcast and re-edited and reposted the related video." Currently, the video has been completely removed online.
Additionally, regarding the People Power Party's criticism of "biased broadcasting," YTN expressed "deep regret over some political circles exaggerating specific graphs and absurdly claiming election fraud."
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