Police Investigate Seoul City Council Member Over MBC Report on Yoon's Profanity Controversy

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] The police have launched a full-scale investigation into the MBC accusation case reporting the ‘profanity controversy’ that arose during President Yoon Seok-yeol’s overseas trip.

The Cyber Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency summoned Lee Jong-bae, a member of the People Power Party and Seoul city councilor, who filed a complaint against MBC President Park Sung-je and others on the morning of the 4th, for defamation by spreading false information and obstruction of business by deception, to investigate him as the complainant.

Before the investigation, Councilor Lee held a press conference, stating, “This MBC false broadcast incident is essentially a political operation beyond the scope of press freedom,” and claimed, “It is clearly spreading false information to definitively report that President Yoon said the word ‘Biden,’ which he never actually said, by adding subtitles with that word.”

He added, “Many experts, including Sung Won-yong, an honorary professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University and a voice recognition expert, and Bae Myung-jin, a sound expert and professor at Soongsil University, said it was not ‘Biden.’” He further stated, “Due to surrounding noise and inaccurate pronunciation, if there had been no subtitles, almost no one would have heard it as ‘Biden.’”

Lastly, Councilor Lee argued that MBC’s report cannot be protected as public interest. He said, “Although articles about the president are basically recognized as having public interest, false broadcasts that can damage the Korea-US alliance and cause serious diplomatic problems cannot be protected by public interest,” and added, “Before habitually claiming media suppression, MBC should reflect on whether it reported the ‘truth’ neutrally and objectively.”

On the 22nd of last month, MBC reported a video of President Yoon speaking to his aides as he left the venue after attending the 7th replenishment conference of the Global Fund hosted by US President Joe Biden in New York, USA.

Regarding the report, Secretary Kim explained, “President Yoon said at the time, ‘If the (Korean) National Assembly does not approve and discards it,’ and there was no mention of the US, so there was no reason to say ‘Biden.’” Minister Park also said the next day, “Common sense tells us there is no reason for the president to criticize the US,” and “He responded with the intention of ‘explaining the content well to the National Assembly so that the budget passes.’”

Meanwhile, the case in which the People Power Party filed a complaint against MBC was assigned to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office on the 30th of last month. A prosecution official said regarding whether the case would be transferred to the police, “Defamation charges do not fall within the scope of direct investigation by the prosecution,” but added, “Since it has not been long since the case was received, we need to review the complaint to know for sure.”