Korean TV Broadcaster Apologizes for Stem Cell Coercion
Korean TV Broadcaster Apologizes for Stem Cell Coercion
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  • 승인 2005.12.01 12:01
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MBC-TV, one of the nation's three major broadcasters, on December 4, apologized for the unethical conduct of its producers of an investigative program as they reported suspicions concerning Prof. Hwang Woosuk's stem cell research.
The broadcaster admitted to violating its own ethics rules while the producers of the investigative program, "PD Notebook," were gathering information unfavorable to Hwang from his junior staffers in the United States. The apology came at the start of its main news program "News Desk 9." "We have confirmed that our producers clearly violated ethics rules required by journalists when they were gathering information on Hwang's stem cell research. We offer an apology to the public for the misconduct," the broadcaster said in a statement. It said that the investigative program's intention was to help build high ethical standards for Korea's embryonic stem cell research. "Using coercive measures to obtain information is a clear violation of not only ethics, rules but also MBC's broadcasting principles. We will get to the bottom of the case and hold those responsible to account," MBC said. MBC's apology came after the all-news cable channel YTN reported an interview with the "feeder" cell expert Kim Son-jong who claimed that MBC coerced him into providing information revealing that Hwang's stem cell exploits were fraudulent. "MBC producers visited me on Oct. 20 and insisted Hwang's research is all fake and his two papers published by Science will be canceled. They even said Hwang will be arrested," said Kim Son-jong, a feeder cell expert who is now at the University of Pittsburgh. "Then they said a police investigation would start in the United States and urged me to reveal everything I know saying that doing so would protect me from the probe," he added. Late last week, MBC producers of "PD Notebook" claimed that Hwang's cloned embryonic human stem cells might not be authentic. The producers told a press conference that they had a research institute, IDGene, test 15 stem cell samples provided by Hwang's team twice and learned one of the sample's DNA does not match its donor. Asking Hwang to carry out a second round of tests to clear away all suspicions, MBC producer Han Hak-soo said last week that he got a crucial confession in Pittsburgh, but Kim flatly rebuffed that. "They continued to claim that there are no (patient-specific human embryonic stem) cells so I made it clear that there are. After double-checking it from Seoul, I called Han and confirmed it again," Kim said. Kim contended MBC duped him and his two Korean colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh into accepting the interview, believing the TV network was making a documentary. "MBC even did not let us know that the broadcaster recorded the interview. After knowing that, I asked it not to air the interview, but it refused the request," Kim said. Kim said he reported all the contents of the interview with MBC to Schatten and that event appears to be the major cause for Schatten to sever ties with Hwang. Hwang became a global cloning superstar through back-to-back exploits of establishing the first cloned human embryonic stem cells in 2003 and patient-specific stem cells this year, both published as cover stories in the U.S. journal Science. However, the integrity of his study came under fire after MBC last month accused Hwang of having used the eggs from of junior staffers. Hwang admitted the allegations are true on Nov. 24 and resigned from all posts to take a responsibility for it, including the chairmanship of the world stem cell bank that opened October to give embryos for global scientists.

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