Court Halts Appointment of New MBC Visiting Directors Until the 26th

The start of the term for six new directors of the MBC major shareholder, the Korea Broadcasting Culture Promotion Foundation, is provisionally suspended until the 26th.

According to the legal community on the 8th, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 12 (Chief Judge Kang Jae-won) decided to suspend the effect of the new director appointment order filed by Kwon Tae-seon, chairman of the Foundation, and directors Kim Ki-jung and Park Seon-ah "until the 26th."

The court stated, "It is necessary to provisionally suspend the effect to prevent unnecessary disputes between the applicants, the directors of the Foundation whose terms are about to expire, and those appointed as their successors during the period required for the trial and final decision of this case." A suspension of execution is a court order that temporarily halts the execution or effect of an administrative disposition made by a government agency or administrative office.

Following the court's suspension of execution, the inauguration schedule for the new directors of the Foundation, planned for the 13th, is also expected to be postponed.

However, the court did not formally accept the suspension of execution application by Chairman Kwon and others on this day. Since it is tight to review the case before the new directors' inauguration date, the court took provisional measures ex officio to secure a minimum hearing period.

The court initially set the hearing date for the 9th of this month but postponed it to the 19th after accepting the request for a date change from the respondent, the Korea Communications Commission.

It is expected that the final decision on whether to suspend execution will be made between the hearing date and before the 26th.

Earlier, on the 31st of last month, about 10 hours after the appointment of Chairman Lee Jin-sook and Commissioner Kim Tae-gyu, the Korea Communications Commission appointed six new directors to the Foundation: Professor Kim Dong-ryul of Sogang University, Son Jeong-mi, a member of the TV Chosun Viewer Committee, Yoon Gil-yong, a special broadcasting advisory member of the Korea Communications Standards Commission, Lee Woo-yong, a mediator of the Press Arbitration Commission, lawyer Lim Moo-young, and lawyer Heo Ik-beom.

In response, Chairman Kwon and other opposition-leaning directors filed a cancellation lawsuit and applied for suspension of execution, arguing that the appointment of Foundation directors by the 'two-person system' Korea Communications Commission was illegal.