In September 2022, MBC, which is currently in a lawsuit with the government over President Yoon Seok-yeol's subtitle controversy involving ‘Biden·nallimyeon,’ requested Kim Eun-hye, a member of the People Power Party who was the presidential office’s chief of public relations at the time, to appear as a witness.
On the 19th, the 13th Civil Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Moon Gwang-seop, Choi Seong-bo, Lee Jun-hyun) held the first appellate hearing for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ defamation correction lawsuit against MBC.
On that day, MBC’s legal representative argued, “We need to examine the credibility of the presidential office’s official stance, which was released only 15 hours after President Yoon’s remarks were first reported.” They added, “Since it is practically difficult to summon the person who made the problematic remarks as a witness, it is necessary to understand the fact-checking process through the then-chief of public relations who oversaw the issuance of the presidential office’s official position.”
On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ legal representative countered, “It has already been confirmed through expert examination in the first trial that the remark was not ‘Biden,’” and said, “It is hard to understand how asking about the presidential office’s media briefing process is relevant to the key issue of this case.” They continued, “The defendant claims there was a delay in the presidential office’s response, but considering the circumstances of the overseas trip at the time, it is difficult to see the delay as unreasonable.”
The court stated that it would first check whether Representative Kim can voluntarily submit a statement related to the case, and if difficult, would consider additional measures such as requesting a fact inquiry.
On September 22, 2022, President Yoon was caught on broadcast cameras saying, “What should we do, it’s embarrassing that these XX in the National Assembly didn’t approve 000 0000,” while leaving an international conference venue in New York, USA. MBC reported this with subtitles adding ‘(USA)’ before ‘National Assembly’ and changed the ‘didn’t approve 000 0000’ part to ‘if they don’t approve, Biden will...’. However, the presidential office explained that the remark was ‘if they don’t approve and nallimyeon’ and that it referred to our National Assembly, not the US Congress.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs pursued mediation procedures at the Press Arbitration Commission at the end of 2022 regarding this report but failed to reach an agreement and filed a defamation correction lawsuit against MBC in December of the same year.
In January, the first trial ruled that since President Yoon’s remarks captured on camera were unclear to the extent that even voice analysis could not confirm them, MBC’s report was false and ordered a correction.
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