Media Union: "KBS Separate Fee Collection, a Hostage Drama of Democracy"

The National Union of Media Workers criticized the government's plan to separate KBS TV license fees from electricity bills for collection on the 7th, calling it "an attempt to dismantle public broadcasting beyond mere control, a hostage drama against democracy."

In a statement released that day, the Media Union said, "Public broadcasting is the minimum safeguard to achieve the fundamental principle that the media must be independent from all powers," and argued, "The current license fee collection system is a kind of safety pin to block political pressure that may arise when the state or political powers directly manipulate public broadcasting resources."

They added, "If the safeguard is removed, power will seize public broadcasting and wield the power's sword at will," and demanded, "Immediately stop the threat of separating license fee collection to create a regime's 'puppet broadcast'."

The Media Union also pointed out that before recommending separate collection, the Presidential Office held a public participation debate on the license fee on its website, but there were criticisms that the debate was inappropriate for handling sensitive issues because the same person could create multiple accounts and participate repeatedly, and the government did not heed these concerns.

Earlier, the Presidential Office submitted the license fee collection method to a public participation debate from March 9 to April 9, and announced that 96.5% of total votes supported improving the current method of integrated collection with electricity bills. On the 5th of this month, it recommended separate collection of license fees to the Korea Communications Commission and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.