President's office labels MBC as irresponsible for false report

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President's office labels MBC as irresponsible for false report

Published: 12 Jan. 2024, 17:51 Updated: 12 Jan. 2024, 19:27

MBC's video of President Yoon Suk Yeol's hot mic moment in New York in September 2022, featuring a subtitle that referred to the U.S. Congress with an expletive. [MBC SCREEN CAPTURE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol's office on Friday accused the public broadcaster MBC of being irresponsible in spreading misinformation.

"The broadcast, claiming to be a public service, has manipulated a subtitle without a scientific or objective confirmation process," said Lee Do-woon, the president's press secretary. "It is seriously irresponsible to broadcast a false report that has a severe impact on national interest."

The president's press secretary said that the court's ruling earlier in the day would not only correct the reporting, which had been far from the truth, but also put an end to the "exhausting" political strife over the remark President Yoon made during his trip to New York in September 2022.

"It will serve as an opportunity to restore the public's trust in our diplomacy and government," Lee said.

On Friday, the Seoul Western District Court ordered MBC to read a correction statement once on the hot mic report it made on President Yoon during in 2022, during its prime-time news.

If the broadcaster fails to follow the instruction, it will have to pay the government 1 million won ($760) every day.

On Sept. 22, 2022, MBC reported that President Yoon used expletive words in describing the U.S. Congress while exiting the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference in New York.

Yoon was reported to have said, "If those [expletive] do not pass it in the [parliament], Biden will lose face."

However, the president's office argued that President Yoon was referring to neither U.S. President Biden nor the U.S. Congress but the Korean National Assembly.

The president's office explained that the word 'Biden' was actually "nallimeun," the Korean word for "throw out."

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]