Court: "Six-Month Suspension Was Excessive"
"KCC Should Have Considered Infringement on Broadcasting Freedom and Damage to Public Value of the Press"
Comprehensive programming channel MBN (Maeil Broadcasting), which had been suspended from operations for six months, won the final appeal in the lawsuit filed against the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) seeking cancellation of the suspension order.
The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Park Young-jae) on the 13th upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of MBN in the lawsuit against the KCC regarding the suspension order.
In October 2020, the KCC decided on a six-month suspension of MBN's operations on the grounds that MBN illegally raised capital, violating the Broadcasting Act. However, to minimize damage to partner companies, the suspension was deferred for six months.
MBN filed a cancellation lawsuit against the order, but the first trial court ruled in November 2022 that "the plaintiff's (MBN's) misconduct appears to be highly illegal," recognizing four out of five grounds for the KCC's order as valid and ruled against MBN.
The first trial court found that MBN's actions, such as listing 16 employees and others as nominal shareholders at the time of comprehensive programming approval in 2010, using 55.6 billion KRW of company funds as paid-in capital while hiding this by falsifying financial statements, and disclosing false financial statements from 2011 to 2018 to conceal illegal capital raising, constituted grounds for the order.
However, the second trial court, while stating that the first trial's judgment "seems appropriate," reversed the decision, noting that "considering direct and indirect impacts related to abuse of discretion, despite the appearance of a suspension, the result would effectively lead to a cancellation of operations."
The second trial court ruled, "The misconduct, i.e., the grounds for the order, are not actions subject to criticism during the plaintiff's broadcasting process," and "It is difficult to see that this order was made by properly comparing the degree of public interest infringement and the disadvantages the plaintiff would suffer, so the plaintiff's claim is valid."
While acknowledging the overall grounds for the order, the court held that the KCC did not sufficiently consider the infringement on freedom of broadcasting and the damage to the public value of the press that would occur if MBN's operations were suspended for six months.
The KCC appealed, but the Supreme Court found no significant legal errors in the second trial's ruling and dismissed the appeal by summary disposition, finalizing the judgment.
MBN stated, "We respect the Supreme Court's ruling and will review necessary follow-up measures."
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