At the center of controversy is whether “PD Diary” had deliberately made it appear as if a young woman in Virginia had died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of mad cow disease, even though her mother said she died from classic CJD, which does not result from eating beef from cattle infected with BSE. This can easily be cleaned up if “PD Diary” reveals the full text of its interview with Vinson’s mother, but it has refused to do that.

After “PD Diary” aired its first report on mad cow disease on April 29, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on May 5 announced a tentative finding that Vinson did not die of vCJD. Then, in its May 13 broadcast, “PD Diary” briefly mentioned the USDA finding, but the presenter insisted it was necessary to wait until the final results were announced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. In other words, it was insinuating that there was no guarantee that the USDA’s announcement was credible. When the CDC did make its announcement on June 12, namely that Vinson did not die from vCJD, “PD Diary” in its June 17 program said the latest announcement was the same as the USDA finding it had already mentioned. It was a sly way of deceiving viewers.

The Press Arbitration Commission on May 20 ruled that “PD Diary” should air a correction, but the program is refusing to abide by this ruling. It merely passed the blame on to its translators, saying in its June 24 program it “regretted” leaving room for misunderstanding by not translating word for word and applying instead a broad approach in its translations. “PD Diary” is also refusing to abide by a July 16 order by the Korea Communications Standards Commission to apologize to its viewers and a ruling by the Seoul Southern District Court on July 31 to air a correction.

A morning talk show also produced by MBC led to problems by airing on July 29 an interview with the mother of a riot police officer that took place on July 4, which took the mother’s comments totally out of context. The mother said her son went to serve his military duty and not to act as a puppet of the administration, in response to criticism by street protesters that riot police were puppets of the Lee Myung-bak administration. But the MBC morning program inserted the mother’s comments at the end of a segment on a riot police officer who is refusing to return to his battalion, opposing the way it is clamping down on protesters. That way the mother’s comments ended up sounding as though she was supporting the officer who has deserted his battalion.

A public broadcaster which uses public airwaves to broadcast its programs is twisting the truth and ignoring or rejecting decisions by the PAC, KCSC, prosecutors and a court of law pointing out distortions of facts and ordering it to air a correction. We must seriously ponder whether we should continue to allow such abuse of the public airwaves.