The National Assembly, led by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, has allocated 5 billion won ($3.6 million) in operational support for TBS, a Seoul-based public broadcaster, in the supplementary budget bill. As the ruling party had emphasized the extra budget was a "war supplementary budget" in response to the Middle East crisis, the opposition People Power Party (PPP) is criticizing the earmarking of funds for a specific broadcaster as inappropriate.
TBS is the station where Kim Eo-jun, a prominent liberal commentator often called a "power speaker" within the opposition bloc, hosted a radio show. The broadcaster has faced financial difficulties since Seoul's financial support ordinance was repealed.
The budget subcommittee of the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee approved the inclusion of 4.95 billion won in new funding for TBS operations in the supplementary budget on Wednesday.
Specifically, four lawmakers — Kim Hyun, Noh Jong-myeon, Lee Jeong-heon and Choi Min-hee — led the push for TBS funding, while PPP lawmaker Kim Jang-gyeom opposed it.
A breakdown of the increased items shows 3.51 billion won was allocated for foreign-language radio broadcasting support and 1.44 billion won for traffic broadcasting production support.
The Democratic Party justified the TBS funding by stating it was "to support the continued broadcasting of TBS, which provides key daily information on transportation, disasters and safety to foreign residents and citizens in the Seoul metropolitan area." The party explained the allocation was consistent with one of the supplementary budget's stated goals of stabilizing public livelihoods.
In response, PPP lawmaker Kim Jang-gyeom said, "Increasing the support budget for TBS, whose overall operations are deficient — including delays in disaster broadcasting — and whose political bias is severe, is unnecessary." He added, "In particular, it does not align with the purpose of the supplementary budget, which is a war supplementary budget."