Chapter 364 Hustle

Chapter 364 Hustle

Chapter 364 Hustle
At the same time that An Rushong was riding in Jenny's Mercedes-Benz to NGN, the steps in front of the National Assembly Building on Yeouido Island in Yeongdeungpo District were crowded with reporters from various Korean radio and television stations, newspapers and magazines. The interview cars and broadcast vehicles even filled the square in front of the building.

In addition to reporters and various interview vehicles, the roads leading to the meeting hall were also crowded with people holding various banners and coming to demonstrate.

This morning, the National Assembly voted on the "Broadcasting and Communications Commission Organization Act" proposed by President Lee Min-bok. Once this bill wins half of the votes in the National Assembly, the relevant provisions will take effect immediately. At the same time, President Lee Min-bok's proposal to establish a "Broadcasting and Communications Commission" will also take effect immediately in accordance with the provisions of the bill.

As mentioned before, in South Korea's cultural and even media circles, the conservatives do not receive very much support. At least among the three major state-owned television stations, none of them has a stance that is directly conservative. The ones they truly support are always the progressives.

But then again, conservatives are not isolated, and there are media outlets that hold views that lean towards them. At least among all major newspapers and magazines, there are relatively many that hold views that lean towards the conservatives.

However, regarding the "Organization Act of the Korea Communications Commission", almost all the media and cultural circles in South Korea hold opposing views. Even the JoongAng Ilbo, which has always supported the conservatives, has a rather ambiguous stance on this matter. For no other reason, whether people supported the conservatives or the progressives in the past, it was only because of their own inclinations and positions, not because of constraints from power.

Take KBS TV station for example. During President Roh’s administration, the station also released many news that were unfavorable to President Roh. After all, the banner that the station raised to the outside world was freedom of news broadcasting. If it did not criticize the president and did not target the Blue House, how could it reflect the title of "uncrowned king" of journalists?
But now, once the "South Korea Broadcasting and Communications Commission Organization Act" is passed, the "South Korea Broadcasting and Communications Commission" that is similar to the emperor will be established, and all TV stations and radio stations will be directly restricted by the Blue House in terms of news broadcasting and even personnel appointments.

Because according to the provisions of this organizational law, all programs broadcast by each television station and radio station need to be approved by the "Broadcasting and Communications Commission". Whether a program produced by a television station or radio station can be broadcast will no longer be decided by the television station or radio station themselves, but will be reviewed by this committee.

In addition, the appointment and transfer of personnel relations of all state-owned television and radio stations, from the president to the vice president, and then to the PD and reporters, must be decided by the "Broadcasting and Communications Commission". Considering that this agency is directly responsible to the president, this means that any PD, reporter, or even the president or vice president of a television station, if they offend the president, will all be in trouble or even lose their jobs.

Therefore, for radio and television practitioners, this "tightening curse" is too harsh, and they simply cannot accept it. The people gathered in front of the Parliament Building today are not all here to interview, some are here to petition, demonstrate, or even go on hunger strike.

In a sense, today's congressional vote is a fateful trial for many people. Considering that the number of seats occupied by conservatives in Congress has long exceeded half, the final result has already been clear. The reason why people are still gathered here is just that they hold a little unrealistic idea deep in their hearts.

When An Rushong and Jenny arrived downstairs at NGN Company, it was just around eleven o'clock. The tightly closed door of the Parliament Building slowly opened, and a group of security personnel came out first.

The entire staircase in front of the Congress Hall, and even the square in front of the Congress Hall, suddenly became lively. Reporters with microphones and recorders in their hands rushed forward, trying to squeeze to the front, get first-hand news, and get a chance to ask questions.

However, the security personnel who rushed out of the meeting hall were obviously prepared for this scene. They formed two human walls on the left and right sides of the stairs, and forcibly isolated the reporters and demonstrators who tried to rush up.

Until these security personnel had isolated the crowd and the members of parliament left the chamber one after another, facing the noisy questions from reporters on both sides of the aisle, most of the members of parliament remained silent. Until most of the members of parliament had left the scene and got into their cars in the parking lot, the person in charge of news releases in the chamber came out and revealed the final voting results to the reporters present.

With the Conservative Party holding an absolute advantage, there were no surprises in this vote in the National Assembly. The total number of seats in the National Assembly is 300, which means there should be 300 votes. There were 12 members who were absent from the vote today, and the total number of votes was 288. After the vote, the total number of votes in favor of the proposal was 198, which exceeded half. Therefore, the "Organization Act of the Broadcasting and Communications Commission" proposed by President Lee Min-bo was successfully passed.

As soon as the news was announced, the scene exploded. Some reporters burst into tears on the spot, and others shouted that this was a major setback for the Republic of Korea's democratic system and a Black Monday in democratic society.

Then, some people began to throw debris at the entrance of the parliament building, and some people tried to break through the security cordon and attack the parliament building. As the scene became more and more chaotic, the sound of sirens came from a certain direction, and soon, police officers wearing fluorescent vests rushed into the scene and began to use human walls to disperse the troublemakers...

With the passage of the Korea Broadcasting and Communications Commission Organic Act in the National Assembly, the Blue House obviously did not want to delay even a minute. That afternoon, the Blue House announced that in accordance with the provisions of the Korea Broadcasting and Communications Commission Organic Act, the Korea Broadcasting Commission and the Ministry of Information and Communication will be formally merged from now on to form a new "Korea Broadcasting and Communications Commission", and Choi Si-joong will officially serve as the first chairman of the committee.

It is reported that on the same evening, Choi Si-joong, who had just received the appointment, met with Kim Jung-joong, chairman of KBS TV station, at his private residence.

As a state-owned television station, KBS has its own board of directors, which is equivalent to a shareholders' meeting. It does not participate in the daily operations of the television station, but once the directors of the board reach a consensus, they can dismiss the current president, vice president and other senior personnel of the television station.

No one knew what Cui Shizhong and Jin Jingzhu talked about that night, but someone saw that Jin Jingzhu had a very unhappy expression on his face when he left Cui's house.

But on the second day after the transition, a report appeared in the JoongAng Ilbo that directly pointed the finger at the current president of KBS TV station, Jung Won-joo.

According to this report, KBS has been facing problems in its operations over the past few years, and has been suffering from serious losses. In order to maintain the normal operation of the station, Zheng Yuanzhu, the president, has applied for state support funds many times. In addition, KBS has also been full of false information in its news reports over the past few years. Some current affairs reporters have threatened to expose news and conduct in-depth interviews, and have extorted money from those involved in the news.

In a nutshell, there are problems at KBS TV station under the leadership of Jung Won-joo, and the problems are very serious. If they are not supervised, there will be a big mess.

The relevant reports first appeared in the JoongAng Ilbo, and then other newspapers followed suit. The next day, YTN's news channel first reported the news, followed by MBC and SBS TV stations.

At this point, KBS TV station became the core of the storm, and the petitioning crowds that had originally gathered in the National Assembly Building, the Blue House and other places suddenly shrank a lot.

In fact, at this time, TV stations like KBS, MBS, SBS, and even YTN and JTBC should all unite and work together to fight against the various administrative orders of the Blue House and the "KMC". Without the cooperation and propaganda of various TV stations, even if the conservatives have the support of newspapers and other media, public opinion will not easily lean towards the Blue House. After all, the main channel for people to get news these days is still from TV broadcasts.

But the reality is that, no one knows what means Choi Shi-jung used, but KBS was isolated in a very short time, and other TV stations, from being sympathetic to the enemy, became cold-eyed spectators, or even became instigators. It was as if the establishment of the "Broadcasting and Communications Commission" was aimed at KBS, which had previously slandered Lee Min-bo, and other TV stations would not be affected.

Amidst this noisy clamor, the NGN news pop-up window, which had only made a brief appearance in a report on the scandal of KBS TV station Vice President Lee Won-jun some time ago, once again exposed a shocking piece of news. Moreover, this shocking piece of news was even more shocking and more shocking than the previous scandal of Lee Won-jun, or even the uproar caused by the establishment of the "Broadcasting and Communications Commission" today.

Less than half an hour after this piece of news appeared on the news list in the NGN news pop-up window, it was pushed to the top of the Yahoo News hot search list. In the following hour, more than 200,000 comments appeared under this piece of news. Various words and expressions of shock and disbelief filled the entire Yahoo Korea forum.

Because of this piece of news, KBS TV station, which was at the center of the storm, even inserted the content of this news into its scheduled program.

(End of this chapter)