"Malicious Manipulative Reporting"
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon refuted media reports claiming that he "only intended to respond to the impeachment rally," stating, "They distorted the report. It must be deleted."
On the 8th, Mayor Oh urged deletion on Facebook, saying, "MBC made a clear distortion in their main news broadcast."
He added, "Yesterday at the event, an MBC reporter suddenly asked about the full-lane occupation protest in Hannam-dong," and "Although I responded that both the pro and anti-protest groups should not commit illegal acts, MBC reported as if I intended to punish only the progressive protesters."
The Seoul city government also released an explanatory statement that day, saying, "The recent measures related to Hannam-ro were not based on the political nature of the groups but were implemented to alleviate citizens' traffic inconvenience," and "The city’s position is to naturally guarantee the constitutional rights of assembly and association, and there is absolutely no intention to infringe upon these rights."
Mayor Oh continued, "It is a serious problem that a public broadcaster is caught up in partisan logic, but to ignore facts and even engage in malicious manipulated reporting is truly deplorable," emphasizing, "If the media has even the minimum conscience, they should immediately delete the problematic report."
The city stated that it will continue to request police cooperation to strictly respond according to law and principles to excessive unauthorized road occupation protests, as well as to provide public transportation detours and traffic information guidance to minimize citizens' traffic inconvenience in the future.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
