'Biden·Nallimyeon' Controversy Goes to Court... Ministry of Foreign Affairs Files Correction Lawsuit Against MBC

On September 28 last year, Park Dae-chul, chairman of the MBC Biased and Manipulated Broadcasting Investigation Task Force (TF), and Kwon Seong-dong, member of the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, along with other People Power Party lawmakers, protested against the coverage of President Yoon Seok-yeol's remarks in New York in front of the MBC headquarters in Mapo-gu, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has filed a lawsuit against MBC requesting a correction report regarding the controversy over President Yoon Seok-yeol's alleged profanity and subtitle issue during his visit to the United States last September.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the 15th that it filed a lawsuit requesting a correction report against MBC at the Seoul Western District Court on December 19th last year. The plaintiff in this lawsuit is listed as "Minister Park Jin, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," and the defendant as "Park Sung-je, CEO of Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation."

On September 22nd last year, President Yoon was recorded by the press pool as he left an international conference in New York, USA, saying, "If these XX in the National Assembly don't approve it, what will we do, feeling embarrassed about OOO?"

Some media outlets, including MBC, added subtitles interpreting 'OOO' as 'Biden' in their reports. In response, the presidential office explained that voice analysis showed the word was 'nallimyeon' (날리면).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and MBC underwent mediation at the Korea Press Arbitration Commission (KPAC) at the end of last year to resolve whether a correction report was necessary, but failed to reach an agreement.

At that time, MBC argued, "Since this is not considered false reporting, a correction report is difficult," and added, "The presidential office's rebuttal was sufficiently conveyed through follow-up reports."

Regarding the filing of the correction report lawsuit, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official explained, "MBC's inaccurate reporting negatively affected domestic and international trust in our diplomacy," and "Therefore, we filed the lawsuit to correct the facts and restore trust in our diplomacy."

Furthermore, the official explained the Ministry's standing as the plaintiff by stating, "As the ministry overseeing the core axis of our diplomacy, the Korea-US relationship, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the primary victim of MBC's report and thus has the legal standing to be a party to the lawsuit."