DP urges Yoon to withdraw nomination of new broadcasting watchdog chief

The Democratic Party (DP) on Friday criticized President Yoon Suk Yeol's nomination of Lee Jin-sook, a former journalist of public broadcaster MBC, as new chief of the state broadcasting watchdog. "Is he in his right mind to assign such a significant role to someone responsible for the shameful history of public broadcasting and who colluded in controlling the media?" DP floor leader Park Chan-dae said during a Supreme Council meeting. Park urged Yoon to revoke his nomination of Lee and to abandon "his ambitions to control the media." The nomination of Lee for chief of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) on Thursday came two days after former KCC Chairman Kim Hong-il stepped down voluntarily ahead of an opposition-led parliamentary impeachment vote against him. The resignation was aimed at preventing the chairman's duties from being suspended as impeachment would automatically suspend the job. The watchdog's chairman holds the key to decisions on broadcasting stations, including the appointment of a new president at MBC TV. The DP, which has a controlling majority of 170 seats in the 300-member Assembly, has accused the former KCC chiefs of unfairly running the broadcasting watchdog only with a vice chairperson, leaving three out of five standing member positions vacant. Source: Yonhap News Agency