Korea's Major Media Comes under Attack for Revising Samsung News
Korea's Major Media Comes under Attack for Revising Samsung News
  • By 정연진 기자(info@koreaittimes.com)
  • 승인 2015.07.15 16:01
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Korea's one of the three largest broadcasting network SBS was embroiled in controversy over its report on the apology from Lee Jae-yong, vice president of Samsung Electronics, according to multiple local media outlets.

On July 3, SBS reported on the issue with the title of "Samsung, which claimed it would be responsible for MERS patients...eventually sent them to other hospitals," together with a video of Lee's apology.

Earlier, Lee had made a public apology for Samsung hospital's role in spreading Middle East respiratory syndrome, saying they will be fully responsible for the patients.

The media reported the video of Lee's saying that "We will treat the patients to the end with responsibility."

For the video, the news anchor said, "Lee said (Samsung) would be responsible for the patients to the end. But the promise was scrapped in ten days," adding that "12 patients out of 15 patients were moved to other hospitals."

However, after the news ended, all of the anchor's comments were re-edited and posted on SBS News homepage.

Instead, the anchor's comment was revised to "Samsung hospital decided to transfer ten MERS patients to other hospitals on the ground that lack of facilities caused the infection of medics.”

Regarding the revision, doubt has been rising within the company that there might be pressure from Samsung. Samsung has reportedly been wielding its power on media with a huge amount of advertising and marketing money.

SBS labor union is also set to probe into the incident that why the broadcasting supervisor arbitrarily revised the report without any reason and he did not inform it to reporters and anchors in charge, according to local media outlet Media Today.

"There have been no cases that anchor's comments are re-edited unless there is a serious mistake in the news. The point of the issue is whether there was pressure from Samsung on the newsroom's executives," SBS labor union was quoted as saying by the local media.

With the controversy rising, the newsroom's chief said, "There was no pressure from Samsung. (For the revision of the news), we re-edited it because the anchor's comment directly asking for responsibility from Lee seemed excessive."

Despite his explanation, the local media labor union, People's Coalition for Media Reform, has denounced SBS, releasing the statement, saying that, "We cannot understand why (the explanation of the newsroom chief) came out after reporting the news. Unless he is not a quicksilver person, there must be some reasons why the report was changed."

"Whether the revision was done out of pressure or they are simply walking on eggshells, the thing that SBS revised the news already reported and acts as if nothing happened is cheating viewers," the statement added.

However, for the controversy, Samsung said, "(For the report revision), we do not know anything about that."


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