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The TV network KBS is in hot water now that the Korean-German sociologist Song Du-yul has been confirmed to be a member of the North Korean Workers Party by the name of Kim Chol-su. The network recently broadcast two documentary-style programs on Song that are being criticized for portraying him in too positive a light.
Last Saturday KBS broadcast "Speaking of Korean society - Refugees that have returned home," which dealt with Song returning to Korea for the first time in 37 years, as well as other "democracy-fighters" who were in exile and prohibited from returning to Korea.
Earlier, in May, a one-hour documentary was aired on the program "Sunday Special," focusing on just Song.
¡°We were highlighting their turbulent lives and the meaning involved by closely reporting on the democracy-fighters,¡± said a representative of KBS.
But critics say the programs shunned the principles of documentaries, which usually call for facts to be presented objectively and free of gratuitious emotional values or evaluations.
Critics pointed to interviews with experts that only stressed the positives behind Song¡¯s return. ¡°KBS portrayed Song¡¯s visit to Korea sentimentally and made him a hero while the NIS was still making investigations," pointed out Kim Woo-ryong, a professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. "They attempted no verifications into Song¡¯s pro-North activities. They violated the basic principles that a public-managed broadcasting station should adhere to, which is to report more objectively on issues that are more politically sensitive. Not only that, it did not fit in with the essence of documentaries - which is to approach the truth based on facts.¡±
Until recent days, when the truth about Song emerged, viewers wrote on the KBS's website that they were very touched after watching the documentaries about him. Many even thanked KBS.
But now the responses have begun to change. ¡°The program was edited to make us feel as if the Korean government was being too harsh on a person returning to Korea for the first time in 37 years,¡± wrote one viewer, Ham Yoon-geun.
Lee Kyu-hwan, the director of KBS's planning and production department, said, ¡°Nothing was confirmed from the NIS even just before the program was released. Our intention was to base the program on humanitarianism, and that may have caused some misunderstanding. But the production people feel that we tried to be impartial and refrain from embellishing.¡±
(Uh Su-woong, jan10@chosun.com )
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