Accused of Political Bias in L.A. Programs : South Korean Ownership of TV Firm Admitted

A Korean-language television broadcasting company in Los Angeles that has been accused of favoring the South Korean government is owned by a subsidiary of that nation’s quasi-governmental television network, company officials acknowledged Monday.

Executive managing director of Korean Television Enterprises Ltd. (KTE), Jhanggil Song, admitted that the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS)--South Korea’s equivalent of the British Broadcasting Corp.--owns KTE.

Controversy erupted over KTE programming last October when the Los Angeles-based Korean-American Free Press Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission that accused television station KSCI (Channel 18) of violating federal communications rules by failing to identify the South Korean government as the sponsor of programming provided by KTE for airing on KSCI.

Henry Paik, a spokesman for KTE, which purchases air time from KSCI to broadcast 12 hours of locally produced and imported Korean-language news and entertainment each week, responded to the allegations in October by stating that there is no South Korean government ownership or control of KTE.

On Monday, Song conceded that KTE is owned by KBS Enterprises Ltd. (KBSE), which in turn is owned by KBS. He insisted, however, that the Korean network, despite its ownership of KTE, does not exercise control over the local company.

He also said that although the South Korean government provided the funds to create KBS and the president of South Korea has the power to appoint the president of KBS, the network is not owned by the government, but instead functions as a separate corporation.

David Danner, an attorney with the Media Access Project, a Washington-based public interest law firm that assisted in filing the October complaint with the FCC, on Monday disputed the idea that KTE could be independent of South Korean government control when it is owned by KBS.

“If KTE starts running programming that antagonizes the Korean government, I can’t imagine that KBS would sit by and tolerate it,” Danner said. “It means that control ultimately lies in the hands of the Korean government. . . . If there is government control and the programming reflects that government control, then it’s propaganda, and should be identified as such. The viewers are entitled to know that.”

The Oct. 9 complaint to the FCC urged that KSCI be required to identify the South Korean government’s program sponsorship and asked for a review of the station’s license.

A separate Oct. 9 letter from the Media Access Project to the U.S. Justice Department requested a criminal investigation into whether KTE and KSCI have complied with the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

In a Jan. 17 response to the FCC, attorneys for KSCI argued that identification of KTE as the producer of local programs--rather than KBS or the South Korean government--is sufficient because KTE has informed the station that “neither KBSE, nor KBS, nor the Korean government exercises any editorial control over such programming.”

For broadcasts of imported KBS programs, identification of the programs as coming from KBS is sufficient--without any need to mention the South Korean government--because, according to the KSCI response: “KBS was created by the government of South Korea and is known as a government-invested corporation. Korean viewers of KSCI know that KBS is a public broadcaster and that its programs are sponsored or produced by the government.”

Critics of the South Korean government in Los Angeles have charged that both in its local news and the imported KBS network news, KTE casts the South Korean government in a favorable light while political opposition is criticized or ignored.

Song said that KTE considers itself politically neutral, but that for news-gathering purposes it views the South Korean government as “the most orthodox organization, the most reliable organization in Korea.”

“If there’s something against the government, unless it is proved, we cannot put it on the air, because it is not solid background at all,” he said.