Text messages reveal cozy relationship between Samsung and South Korean broadcasters

Jang Choong-gi, former head of Samsung’s Future Strategy Office, enters the Seoul Central District Courthouse to attend the first hearing of his trial on Aug. 25.

Critics say the media has placed a pursuit of money and power over reporting ethics

Jang Choong-gi, former head of Samsung’s Future Strategy Office, enters the Seoul Central District Courthouse to attend the first hearing of his trial on Aug. 25.

Newly released text messages and transcripts of voice recordings illustrate how the South Korean broadcasters basically served as a stooge for the “Republic of Samsung.” Critics say this reveals the “true face” of the press, which has discarded reporting ethics in favor of money and power.

On Mar. 5, news website Newstapa reported that in 2015 Ryu Je-ung, who is currently chief of the office of strategy and coordination at news channel YTN, helped Samsung representatives acquire an informant’s video that allegedly showed Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee cavorting with a prostitute.

According to Newstapa, reporters from YTN’s city desk met an informant who had a video of Lee’s alleged meeting with a prostitute in Aug. 2015. Ryu, then chief of the city desk, told his subordinates not to tell any other reporters about the video. After this, Ryu tried to persuade the informant to hand over the video without any compensation, and when the informant refused, Ryu suggested taking the video to Samsung, Newstapa said.

“After informing Samsung of the video, [Ryu] appears to have obtained the contact information of someone who could handle this matter and to have passed that along to the informant,” Newstapa said, providing a transcript of a recorded phone call between Ryu and the informant. Ryu did not respond to the Hankyoreh’s request for comment.

“Ryu Je-ung’s behavior not only violated the press’s code of ethics but also obstructed reporting and coverage of an important tip,” YTN’s labor union said in a statement.

On Mar. 4, an MBC show called Straight published text messages received by Jang Choong-gi, former head of Samsung’s Future Strategy Office. In Dec. 2014, Lee In-yong, former head of communications at Samsung, sent Jang a message that read, “Among the [terrestrial] broadcasters, KBS, MBC and SBS all said they wouldn’t cover it. Among the cable channels, I was concerned about JTBC, but when I got in touch with President Kim Su-gil, he told me not to worry.” This was was at the height of a controversy about the public listing of Cheil Industries, which had netted the Samsung owners an assessed profit of 5.8 trillion won (US$5.4 billion).

It was also revealed that Choi Gi-hwa, former head of planning for MBC, sent a text message to Jang in 2015 about concert tickets he had received. “Choong-gi, thank you so much for your generous gift,” Choi wrote in the text message. Choi was removed from the MBC board of directors during a general meeting of stockholders in Jan. 2018.

“We reported three times about the controversy over the profits that the Samsung owners would gain from the public listing of Cheil Industries. When [Kim Su-gil] said that Jang didn’t need to worry, it was just a polite and perfunctory response meaning that we would stick to the facts,” JTBC said in response to the MBC report. The Hankyoreh was unable to get in touch with Choi.

“MBC’s behavior under its former president Kim Jang-gyeom was an overt violation of the spirit of the Broadcasting Act, which guarantees the freedom and independence of broadcast programming. This should be thoroughly investigated and the guilty parties held responsible,” the MBC labor union said in a statement.

　

By Park Jun-yong, staff reporter

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