Seoul City Council manages to cut funding for TBS eFM

Politics

Published: 15 Nov. 2022, 18:17 Updated: 15 Nov. 2022, 19:41

Seoul City Council manages to cut funding for TBS eFM

TBS employees watch a session of the Seoul Metropolitan Council being broadcasted outside its building on Tuesday. The session passed a bill Tuesday that will scrap Seoul city government's funding for TBS starting in 2024. [YONHAP]

A bill that may switch off Seoul's English-language radio station TBS eFM was passed by the metropolitan council on Tuesday.

Drafted by conservative People Power Party members of the council in July, the bill passed at a regular council session on Tuesday afternoon.

Effective starting Jan. 1, 2024, the bill cuts off the city government’s funding of TBS, or Traffic Broadcasting System. Over 70 percent of its costs have been covered by city funding.

Members of the liberal Democratic Party boycotted the session on Tuesday in protest.

The People Power Party controls a majority on the Seoul city council, with 76 members out of 112. This means they can pass a bill without Democratic Party members present. The bill passed Tuesday with 72 out of 73 votes of members present at the session, all members of the People Power Party.

The conservative party is not happy with liberal-leaning radio host Kim Ou-joon, who runs daily a current affairs program "News Factory” on TBS.

TBS eFM is familiar to many expats in Seoul.

Running English-language radio shows daily from 2008, TBS eFM provided around-the-clock coverage of traffic, weather, music and the arts scene, and other daily news affecting Seoulites.

The CEO of the company, Lee Kang-taik, has protested the threat of a budget cut. His contract comes to an end in February. Lee is reportedly mulling submitting his resignation soon, citing health issues.

Established in 1990 as a traffic broadcasting arm for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, TBS became independent in February 2020.

“Think of what this will do to 400 TBS employees,” Park Yoo-jin, Democratic Party member of the city council, told the press after the bill’s passage. “The decision is an act of serious media suppression.”

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]