Chapter 354 We are all our own people

Chapter 354 We are all our own people

Chapter 354 We are all our own people

After saying a few more perfunctory words to Han Meiyan, An Rushong hung up the phone, sat in front of a turned-on computer, opened the web browser, and directly logged into the Yahoo News hot search list.

Sure enough, in the hot news search list, the first topic was about Li Minbo. An Rushong clicked on the news link and found the topic about the "Broadcasting and Communications Commission" through layers of hyperlinks.

Just as expected, this topic was extremely popular. In just over an hour, there were more than 170,000 comments under this topic. In South Korea, where the total population is only 50 million, this level of public opinion participation is already very high.

Without paying attention to the messages, An Rushong first browsed the content of the news.

Just as Han Mi-yeon said on the phone, this so-called "South Korea Broadcasting and Communications Commission" is one of the eight proposals put forward by Lee Min-bo. According to his request, the two major agencies, the former South Korean Broadcasting Commission and the Ministry of Information and Communications, will be merged into one.

In order to ensure the normal operation of this new agency, the State Council will absorb all 310 members of the original Broadcasting Commission and 164 members of the Ministry of Information and Communication into the new agency. At the same time, President Lee Min-bo will personally appoint five people as standing members of the Broadcasting and Communications Commission.

According to the proposal, the new "Communications Commission" will be directly led by the South Korean president, and its administrative authority will be defined by the president. South Korea's communications industry and television broadcasting industry will be completely supervised and managed by this agency. In order to ensure the power of this agency, Lee Min-bo is even prepared to directly promote the introduction of a "Communications Commission Organization Act."

According to the requirements of this proposal, in the future the South Korean president will directly lead the "South Korean Communications Commission", and the "South Korean Communications Commission" will be directly responsible for managing all television stations, radio stations and communications agencies in South Korea.

In the past, although TV stations like SBS, MBC, and KBS were state-owned, they had independent rules on the right to news reporting. Therefore, the main leadership of the TV stations were not directly under the jurisdiction of the president in terms of personnel appointments. This was also the most fundamental reason why Lee Min-bo was unable to do anything about KBS TV station.

Once the proposal put forward by Lee Min-bo is passed by Congress, from now on, if the leadership of any TV or radio station is disobedient, the incumbent president can kick them out with just one word.

Such a proposal will undoubtedly expand the authority of the incumbent president. During a president's term of office, it can eliminate noise to the greatest extent and ensure smooth governance. But at the same time, since television and radio stations are directly restricted by the incumbent government, the tendency of their news reports will naturally be more obvious.

In addition, no one can guarantee that these media organizations will not become tools for the incumbent president to suppress the opposition party.

Anyone with a little common sense can understand the disadvantages like this. Therefore, there are a lot of objections in the comment section below this news. Some people even claim that once this proposal is passed by the National Assembly, South Korea’s democracy will die and Seoul will return to the military dictatorship.

Needless to say, the political stance of those who hold this view must be, or at least tend to be, progressive, because only these people will use the dictatorship during the military period as an argument to criticize and attack the conservative stance from time to time.

Also in the comments section below this news, there are a lot of people who support Lee Min-bo's proposal. Most of these people believe that the Korean media industry, those journalists who think they are the uncrowned kings, have lost their professional ethics and the original intention of their work, which can be seen from Lee Won-jun's actions.

Therefore, for the sake of fairness and justice, there should not be any unregulated organization in South Korea, even if it is a news organization.

Absolute power means absolute corruption. This maxim applies everywhere. Are news organizations an exception?
Below the news item, hundreds of thousands of comments were directed at each other, each one defending the political faction they supported and attacking the opposing political faction. The level of heated debate was really surprising.

In An Rusong's view, this debate is actually a kind of political confrontation, and the political confrontation among the people will eventually lead to the political division of the entire society. The two opposing parties initially believed that the other party was stupid, then regarded the other party as evil, and finally regarded the other party as an alien evil, making it difficult for the two politically opposing parties to reconcile.

In the world of An Rushong's previous life, all facts prove a phenomenon: that is, systems like those of South Korea and the United States are only suitable for favorable situations. When the national economy is good and people have a decent living standard, then everything is fine. But once the favorable situation ends and an unfavorable situation appears, the entire society will quickly fall apart.

What is the point of creating opposing public opinions and creating social divisions? The dispute between the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States and the dispute between progressives and conservatives in South Korea are already conflicts in themselves, so there is no need to spend time creating them.

After browsing the entire news and briefly looking through the various comments below, An Rusong was so focused that he didn't even know when the cigarette in his hand burned out. He threw his extinguished cigarette butt into the trash can next to the cabinet. After thinking for a while, An Rusong took the phone that he had put aside before, found Bai Jinjun's number in the address book, and dialed it directly.

The busy tone on the phone rang only three times, and the person on the other end pressed the answer button. Then, before An Rushong could speak, Bai Jinjun's voice came from the other side: "Rushong, I was just about to call you, but I didn't expect you to call me first."

The voices on the other end sounded a bit noisy, as if Bai Jinjun was attending a party at this moment.

"Is there anything wrong, Brother Jin Jun?" An Rushong did not ask his question directly, he said with a smile.

"Of course I invite you to come and celebrate," Bai Jinjun laughed, "At seven o'clock, at my residence, Mr. Qingxi's friends will come over for a small celebration. Haha, you are our hero, you must be there. Mr. Qingxi specifically told me that."

"Oh, seven o'clock? Okay, I will be there on time," An Rushong said with a smile.

Today should be the first day of Lee Min-bo's official administration. No matter from which aspect, those who gathered around him, such as Bai Jinjun, should celebrate well on this festive day. The reason why the celebration reception was arranged in Bai Jinjun's villa instead of a hotel was because Lee Min-bo was now a top public figure in South Korea. I don't know how many eyes were staring at him. If this celebration reception was too unrestrained, it would probably lead to public opinion that was very unfavorable to Lee Min-bo.

Don't forget that although Lee Min-bo has proposed a proposal to establish a "Broadcasting and Communications Commission" to fully control the Korean media industry, this proposal has not yet been passed by the National Assembly. Even if it is passed smoothly, it will take some time for it to be implemented.

During this window of opportunity, the vested interest groups, including the core leadership of KBS TV, will definitely not surrender obediently. They will definitely fight back and resist to prevent the proposal from being passed. If Li Minbo is not careful during this period, he will probably be caught by the other party, leading to a passive situation.

That's right, with the introduction of the proposal to establish the "Broadcasting and Communications Commission", An Rushong believes that in the future, South Korea's news and entertainment fields will become extremely lively, and various protests and petitions will definitely be inevitable, which will definitely deal a certain blow to Lee Min-bo's public support.

But then again, as long as he can withstand this wave and successfully implement the proposal, his situation will be much better in the next few years.

"Okay, okay," Bai Jinjun smiled when he heard An Rusong accept the invitation over the phone, "Then I'll wait for you to come over."

He paused, then thought of something and asked, "By the way, is there something you want to talk to me about?"

"Ah, that's it, Brother Jin Jun," An Rusong asked directly, "I saw the news this afternoon. Mr. Qingxi's proposal claimed that the Broadcasting Commission and the Ministry of Information and Communication would be merged to form a 'Broadcasting and Communications Commission.' I want to know whether the chairman of this committee has been finalized?"

"Oh, why, Rushong is very concerned about this matter," Bai Jinjun said with a smile on the phone.

"I have to care about it," An Rusong said. "The conflict between me and Li Yuanjun before was not just about offending him, the vice president. I believe that KBS, MBC, and other radio and television stations have probably blacklisted me. But my NGN company cannot do without their cooperation on some things. In addition, as I said before, a friend of mine is doing the online copyright business of film and television dramas, which also requires cooperation with various radio and television stations, you know."

At this point, he paused, smiled bitterly, and said, "Anyway, how could I not care about this?"

"Haha," Bai Jinjun laughed loudly on the phone, and then he said, "Okay, okay, I understand your difficulties."

After a pause, he continued, "The proposal you mentioned will be voted on in Congress tomorrow afternoon. If nothing unexpected happens, the candidate for the chairman will be announced the day after tomorrow. Well, Cui Shizhong, haha, Mr. Qingxi prefers him to be the chairman. So, when you come over tonight, I will introduce you to him. We are all family, so we can talk openly about anything."

(End of this chapter)