A Comparative Study of the Conflicts Between Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) and Governments in the UK and South Korea

Beom-Soo Park was a fellow during 2010/11 and is Senior Reporter at the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).

In his study entitled, 'A Comparative Study of the Conflicts Between Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) and Governments in the UK and South Korea', Beom-Soo focuses on two cases: the first is the conflict between the BBC and the British government over the 'Andrew Gilligan Case' in 2003-2004 (prompted by the BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan’s reporting that the Tony Blair government ‘sexed up’ the report about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction). The second is the conflict between MBC and the Korean government over the 'PD Notebook Case' in 2008-2009 (prompted by the report in the programme PD Notebook that the Lee Myung-Bak government permitted the import of American beef despite the risk of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, CJD, otherwise known as ‘mad cow disease’).  

Through the development and the resolution of these two critical conflicts, his paper compares and analyzes how these two governments tried to control the media, and the responses of the respective journalists in the BBC and MBC. It also looks at how the BBC is able to maintain its independence from government focusing on its financial security, the characteristics of the BBC culture, the role of the BBC Trust and the editorial guidelines of the BBC.

As with all Fellows’ research papers, any opinions expressed are those of the author and not of the Institute.

Image: Reuters, Stephen Hird