PPP Slams Broadcasting Commission Nominee as Pro-Democratic 'Poli-fessor'

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) criticized the nomination of Kim Jong-cheol as the inaugural chairman of the Broadcasting, Media and Communications Commission (BMCC), calling it "a code appointment by the Lee Jae-myung administration that amounts to public deception aimed at controlling broadcasting."

Choi Su-jin, chief spokesperson for the PPP floor leadership, issued a statement Wednesday saying President Lee Jae-myung's nomination of Kim "reveals that his claim to 'return broadcasting to the people' was nothing but empty words."

"The intention to control broadcasting by installing a pro-Democratic Party poli-fessor who fits the administration's political code has been blatantly exposed," Choi said.

The spokesperson noted that Kim "served as a member of the recommendation committee for the head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials in 2020, nominated by the Democratic Party."

"He is a representative pro-government scholar who abandoned the duty of political neutrality required of professors and has actively defended the Democratic Party's political legislation," Choi said.

She particularly pointed out that "he has shown a view of the state that diverges from public common sense, including publishing a paper opposing the dissolution of the Unified Progressive Party."

"There are serious questions about whether such a person can fairly and neutrally operate a national institution responsible for broadcasting, media and telecommunications policy," Choi added.

Responding to President Lee's characterization of Kim in the confirmation hearing request as "the right person to strengthen the people's media sovereignty based on expertise at a time when broadcasting, media and telecommunications issues are piling up," Choi countered that "Kim is merely a legal scholar with no connection to the relevant field and has no link whatsoever to such expertise."

"This appointment is nothing other than 'yangduguyuk' — displaying sheep's head while selling dog meat," Choi said. "The promise to return broadcasting to the people has been revealed as a disguised attempt to control broadcasting and telecommunications by putting forward figures who fit their biased political code."

"The People Power Party will work with the people to block this unjust attempt to control broadcasting to the end," Choi said. "We will never stand idly by any act that undermines freedom of the press and fairness of broadcasting, which are the foundations of democracy."