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Yoon’s wife seeks injunction to stop 2nd MBC broadcast on her phone calls

January 19, 2022

The wife of main opposition People Power Party (PPP) presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol has applied for an injunction to stop public broadcaster MBC from airing the second portion of her recorded phone conversations with a reporter, PPP’s election committee said Wednesday.

Last Sunday, MBC’s investigative program “Straight” broadcast the first portion of seven-hour phone conversations between Yoon’s wife Kim Keon-hee and a staff member of the YouTube channel Voice of Seoul after a local court partially adopted an injunction filed by Kim against the broadcaster.

MBC has said it plans to air the second portion of Kim’s phone recordings on the same program this Sunday.

A screen mounted outside the headquarters of MBC TV in Seoul on Jan. 16, 2022, shows the airing of recordings of phone calls between Kim Keon-hee, the wife of People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, and a reporter. (Yonhap)

A screen mounted outside the headquarters of MBC TV in Seoul on Jan. 16, 2022, shows the airing of recordings of phone calls between Kim Keon-hee, the wife of People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, and a reporter. (Yonhap)

In her second injunction application filed with the Seoul Western District Court, Kim said MBC has failed to respect her repeated requests to secure her right of reply regarding its Sunday broadcast, according to the PPP election committee.

“Even though MBC has been asked several times to provide the gist and content of its planned broadcast and guarantee Kim’s right of reply, it has not provided any information, such as the outline, subject and content,” the PPP committee said.

The committee also said it has filed a complaint against an MBC reporter in charge of the broadcast with the prosecution on charges of violating the election law.

Kim’s side has argued the airing would be illegal, because the phone conversations were private, while MBC has retorted the broadcasting will serve the public interest and help voters evaluate the wife of a major presidential candidate.

Ahead of last Sunday’s broadcast, Kim had filed an injunction against MBC with the same court on Thursday. The court ruled the following day that MBC can air only parts of Kim’s phone conversations, excluding the parts related to authorities’ investigations into her.

Earlier, Kim also filed an injunction with the Seoul Central District Court to block YouTube news channel Open Mind TV from airing the same phone conversations.

The court ruled Wednesday that the channel can air them with the exception of some parts.