1. <Aspiring journalist Choi Seung-ho>
I wanted to be a reporter, but I thought that becoming an MBC reporter would be a shame.
I didn't want to be a reporter for MBC who made dangjeon news.
So, I joined MBC's 'Best Job in the Universe' as a PD rather than a reporter.
His father was a professional soldier and he lived in Daegu from elementary school until graduation.
When he was a student at Kyungpook National University, he immersed himself in theater rather than studying his department.
He was not a student movement by throwing Molotov cocktails, but he was a person who thought he was indebted to '5.18 Gwangju'.
He was recognized for his production ability while making <People of the National Police Agency>, which boasted a viewer rating of 30%, and joined the long-desired <PD Notebook> in 1995.
<PD Notebook>, which started in 1990, was a struggle for PDs to voice their opinions on current affairs reports, which had been regarded as the exclusive property of journalists, as well as a challenge to the taboos and evils of our society.
<PD Notebook> expanded its scope through constant fighting.
There were times when I was fighting the outside, but there were times when I was fighting the inside as well.
He did not hesitate to stand in the forefront whenever such a fight occurred, so becoming the union chairman in 2003 was in a way expected.
He returned to work as a director and anchor of <PD Handbook> in 2005 after completing his job as a union chairman.
He revealed the denial of research conducted by former Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-seok and coined the term 'PD journalism' through reports that shook Korean society, such as <Prosecutors and Sponsors> and <The Secret of the Four Major Lectures>.
He was a star PD whose face and name was known to the public, but the hatred of management and the conservative government was properly ingrained.
He was fired in 2012 and lived as a laid-off journalist for over four years before returning to MBC as president in 2017 when the Moon Jae-in administration took office.
After his tenure as president, he is now working as a PD for <News Tapa>, an exploration-specialized media.
Public broadcasting was the spoil of power.
This is no different between conservatives and progressives.
When the government changed, it was repeated that a person suited to the taste of power became the head of a public broadcasting company.
In the process, extreme conflicts and struggles arose.
It is difficult to predict what will happen to public broadcasting after this election is over.
Since joining the company in 1986, this person has been at the forefront of conflicts and struggles at MBC, and has experienced the victories and defeats of that struggle with his whole body.
He was fired for demanding the democratization of broadcasting, and as president, he wielded a sword at people who had different views than him.
He wanted to meet this man who had no choice but to think more than anyone before the presidential election and hear about the relationship between power and the media.
He also had a lot of questions he wanted to ask a person who had a career as a journalist.
On the 16th, I met Choi Seung-ho, the former president of MBC <Newstapa> PD at <Newstapa> studio.
2. <MBC PD Choi Seung-ho>
The report on Hwang Woo-seok produced by <PD Notebook> in 2005 is an indispensable part of Korean broadcasting history.
At that time, Hwang Woo-seok was the greatest national hero after King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sun-sin.
The accusation of <PD Notebook> that Hwang Woo-suk's research, which raised Korea's status through stem cell research and gave hope to patients with incurable diseases, was false, aroused a strong backlash from public opinion.
At one time, all TV commercials were dropped, and I even received a warning call from the Blue House.
It was the biggest crisis of this person's life, who, along with PD Han Hak-soo, as the team leader and anchor of <PD Note>, was the main character of this report.
Not to mention the disappearance of the program, I thought that the broadcaster might close its doors.
I knew then that the public sometimes prefer sweet fantasies over the truth.
I was not afraid when I faced the president and faced the NIS head-on, but it was difficult at that time.
"The only thing I was afraid of was Dr. Hwang Woo-seok. What I was afraid of was not the Roh Moo-hyun government or Mr. Hwang himself, but the many people who supported Mr. Hwang and the public. I was afraid because I thought I was not going to act.”
I was frustrated by the situation in which the public did not believe me even if I told the truth, and I suffered from extreme stress at the thought that I could be arrested.
He signaled that his body could no longer bear it.
“At that time, I felt like a blood vessel was going to burst on the back of my hand. I’m usually very insensitive, so I don’t feel health problems very well. . When I measured my blood pressure there, my systolic blood pressure was over 200."
It was through thorough fact-checking that the term PD journalism could be established through this report, overcoming the crisis that could lead to a fall with one twist.
This is the testimony of Jae-Hong Jung, who has worked with this person on <PD Notebook> since 2000 and made the films <Accomplices> and <Confession> together.
"PD Choi Seung-ho was a person who was unusually obsessed with the principles of journalism even in the MBC Current Affairs Bureau. Before that, the MBC Current Affairs Bureau tried to eat with the emotional touch and composition represented by <Human Age>. As a manager, I emphasized the facts more than the reporters. They said, 'Don't say anything unless it's based on facts.' I double-checked it and cross-checked it...but I did not tolerate biased interpretations. Arbitrarily due to the logic of the camp There is a tendency to interpret, but this person puts a lot of effort not to be biased.”
<Jeong Jae-Hong/ <PD Notebook> Writer
Since 2008, I have been training at the University of Missouri, a specialized course for investigative reporting, IRE for 10 months.
He returned from training in 2009 and returned as a PD for <PD Notebook>.
This was the first person who had served as a manager and anchor in that team to return as a PDP.
He said that from then until 2012, when he was fired, was his prime.
<Prosecutors and Sponsors> and <Continuous Reports on the Four Major Rivers> came out during this time.
The theory of investigative reporting systematically learned in the United States was added to 20 years of field experience, and the face and name were known as the representative of <PD Notebook>, so the three beats were fully equipped.
A total of 36 episodes were made in <PD Notebook>, with almost no exceptions being those that accuse them of corruption or come into direct confrontation with the powers in power.
I thought it would be a series of corrections and objections, but it is not.
"Among what I've reported so far, I have never reported a counterargument or a correction report because the content was significantly wrong. In the Four Rivers program, a large number of businessmen from Dongji High School, President Lee's alma mater, signed contracts for the Four Rivers project, but they said the number of companies was wrong. It is the only one that has received a recommendation from the Korea Communications Standards Commission."
It's been a long time since I stopped attending class reunions.
I did not play golf during my training in the US.
It is said that while playing golf, human relationships are constantly formed, and those parts are not suitable for investigative reporters.
He said that anyone doing investigative reporting should always be ready to shoot anyone.
My only hobby is going for a leisurely run on the weekend or hiking with my wife while listening to audiobooks from the English weekly <The Economist>.
"I've always had that idea. For example, while doing programs like <Prosecutors and Sponsors>, I made the program with the thought that 'in a few months, prosecutors will come after me with a microscope on this path I am taking now.'"
According to the recently released NIS data, during the last administration, the NIS was grasping the sympathy of this person as if looking into the palm of their hand.
He was watching not only whether he joined a certain group, but also his online activity.
He said he knew the NIS was watching, but he didn't think it would be this much.
3. <Resigned journalist Choi Seung-ho>
Kim Jae-cheol, who had a special relationship with Lee Myung-bak, took over as the president of MBC in 2010.
Kim Jae-cheol tried to change MBC's resistance DNA.
When the union goes on strike, it hires replacement workers with the attitude that 'even if it's not you, there are many people who will be broadcasting.'
Those who did not comply were fired or sent into exile, bringing shame and contempt.
The union resisted with a strike that lasted nearly six months.
What happened at the broadcaster showed how far powers can do what they want and how far unions can resist.
Both labor and management suffered fatal wounds.
Kim Jae-cheol did not leave this person who was also a symbol of the MBC union.
He was somewhat prepared for his dismissal, as he touched the rebellion of the core of power through the report on the four major rivers.
He was fired in 2012 along with current MBC president Park Seong-jae.
He lost his job at the age of fifty-three and took the name of a laid-off journalist.
He said that firing a worker would be like a death sentence, but it wasn't that hard.
After his dismissal, his father and mother-in-law died one after another.
He said sorry to both of them.
According to Oh Jeong-hwan, a former head of MBC's news agency, who has a different political stance from this person, this person was good at joking and funny, but that has changed since he was dismissed.
He always had a sad expression on his face and spoke less.
If Kim Yong-jin, CEO of <News Breaking>, hadn't reached out his hand to work together, his heart disease would have deepened.
"If I had been confined to MBC without a new path called <Newstapa>, that part might have left a huge scar. They don't remain seriously injured or do this."
I wondered if the problem of living right now would be difficult, but the union gave me half my salary and I got money from <Newstapa>, so I had no problems at all, at all.
He expressed the idea that he did not want to downgrade his own fighting level due to problems with food and money, etc., by using the adverb 'not at all' twice.
There was no sanctuary for this man in the days of Newstapa.
Wherever he thought it was necessary for coverage, he pointed the camera at him and asked questions to anyone.
He was not afraid of being looked down on as an uninvited guest, rejected, kicked out, and ridiculed.
He completely ignored the saying, 'You can't do this here'.
To some, this person's coverage was rude, harsh, and at times violent.
However, this person did not stop such an investigation.
The scene of asking the outgoing President Lee Myung-bak if he instructed the four rivers to be 6 meters deep is a scene that will remain in the Korean media history as the pinnacle of such coverage.
- In an interview with Ji Seung-ho in 2014, he said, 'I am the only person who can ask that question, and other people can't do that.
It shows how ignorant the Korean media is.”
"That was my position at that time. The media within the institutional system couldn't ask such questions. At that time, <Newstapa>, to which I belonged, was in some way a non-institutional media, so it was self-reliant by rules within the system or something like that. I was able to come up with such an idea because I didn’t have to regulate it.”
While at Newstapa, I made the films “Confessions,” which tracked the NIS investigation and trial of espionage, and “Accomplices,” a film about the struggles of public broadcasting media workers. .
<Confession> took three years to cover and produce.
On the day of the trial, I visited the Seocho-dong court almost every time.
Ask the prosecutor, ask the lawyer, ask the NIS staff who investigated the case, and ask the former head of the NIS who is trying to cover Hansako's face with an umbrella.
- Don't you hear a lot of stories about being tenacious and poisonous?
"Some people may feel that way. Because when they think there is a problem, they report for a short period of time and do not stop, but continue. The four major rivers have been reporting for over 10 years. Otherwise, I can't figure out what's right."
It was a time when I was at ease because there was a clear target to fight and something to hate, but it was also a time of no hope.
President Park Geun-hye's approval rating exceeded 60%, MBC was under the control of the government, and the union was neutralized.
The first instance court ruled that the dismissal was null and void, but MBC's management had no intention of reinstating this person.
It was a dark time because the future of public broadcasting was not in sight rather than because there was no hope of reinstatement.
So, as if in a dream, I talked about the most desperately desirable public broadcasting.
It is noteworthy that from that time on, he insisted on public broadcasting in a politically neutral zone.
“In modern history, conservative forces have been synonymous with press control, so those seeking freedom of the press have had no choice but to oppose conservatives politically. It is urgently necessary to persuade the people of conservative tendencies to pursue this by persuading the people of conservative tendencies with the
<2013, Practical Literature>
The conversation I had with Seungho Ji in 2014 sounds like a prophecy.
The prophecy was not so wrong.
-Ji Seung-ho: If the government changes again, I think you might be tempted by the 'code greeting' to think that public broadcasting should be normalized quickly, right?" Choi Seung-
ho: "I will.
Then the vicious cycle of retaliation and retaliation will continue.
Every time the president changes, it goes back and forth from extreme to extreme.
Eventually, the credibility of the broadcast will drop to the limit.
When a public broadcaster dies, it counts as a final episode.
The harm will be borne by the people.” Excerpted from <2014, stand on the side of the weak, not the regime—Newstapa PD Choi Seung-ho’s story in the Korean press>
4. <MBC President Choi Seung-ho>
In 2017, the government changed and MBC president Kim Jang-gyeom was ousted with more than two years remaining in office.
He raised his hand to go there.
"Because I was a symbol of oppression as a layoff, I went in (as the president) and said, 'We can't turn back the time now, so that's all we can do now. To create sympathy for the part, I thought it would be easier to accept if someone like me talked about it.”
I had such aspirations, but it is difficult to say that they have come true.
Since his inauguration as president, 19 employees have been laid off in the name of 'clearing corruption', some of whom have been fired twice.
Eight people who were fired for sexual scandal and personal corruption are included, but more people than those fired during the Lee Myung-bak-Park Geun-hye days were forced to leave their jobs due to intentional misconduct.
Of the 88 reporters at the press headquarters who did not cooperate with the union strike, 82 were transferred to the department where they could not hold a microphone, and the correspondents were summoned during their tenure.
His tenure as president was, as he put it, 'the days with blood on his hands'.
"The greeting I made when I entered MBC is more of a greeting from the new system than I did. I didn't personally like someone so I sat down and did it, but at that time, it could be said that the organization did the greeting. They had chosen seniors and trusted people as the leaders of the organization, so from the outside, especially from the conservative camp, you might think that they are very biased people because their power has completely disappeared. there will be."
Although public broadcasters had to maintain political neutrality, MBC, with this person in charge, was not in a politically neutral zone.
The biggest issue during his tenure as president was the country's situation.
MBC News emphasized the reform of the prosecution and took a position of defending the motherland.
At the time, the news bureau chief Park Seong-jae appeared on the news factory hosted by Kim Eo-jun and said, 'I just saw a million people' in relation to the Seocho-dong rally, symbolically showing such a position.
Choi Seung-ho questioned whether Park Seong-jae's words and actions were appropriate, but did not take responsibility for it.
"I think it's very difficult not to intervene when you have to take responsibility. I tried not to intervene in individual reports, but I thought of trying to focus. Reports should be based on facts. I always said things like, "Isn't it better to give?"
At that time, MBC's management was a kind of collective leadership system.
It was a structure in which no matter how much the president was, he could not ignore the right to speak of the unionized employees who returned to work after being dismissed.
“The union members shared the loot as if they were sharing the loot among themselves. As the president, you may have thought that you shouldn’t do this, but there is no way you can control it. The yangban are from the few current affairs education producers, and their successor, President Park Seong-jae, is the number one. It is true that CEO Choi Seung-ho was weak in terms of power because there are many and influential reporters.”
<Oh Jung-hwan/ Former Head of Reporting at MBC> When I
was president of MBC, meetings were long and the atmosphere was always heavy.
It was because of the declining viewership ratings and the accumulating deficits.
The competitiveness of dramas and other programs fell without knowing the bottom, and the news ratings dropped to the 1% level at one time.
From this point on, he began to study meditation.
“Because the position of the president is a position that inevitably brings stress to the entire organization, I tried to control my mind. There were cases where I just got angry during a meeting, harassing my juniors, and hurting my heart. I practiced looking into it, and I did a lot of things like that. The time I spend looking into my heart seems to increase as I get older. Because people eventually come closer to death…”
Looking into his own heart, he realized that he no longer wanted this position, but he was not in a position to talk about a second term as the president, as the accumulated deficit during his tenure exceeded 200 billion won.
In December 2017, the employee was greeted with cheers and applause as he returned to the position of president after 1,997 days after being fired.
He wasn't like that when he left.
After leaving MBC president, he returned to <News Tapa> as a PD.
As he went on to become the president of MBC, he kept his promise to never look out for politics and return to <News Breaking>.
In a world overflowing with journalists snooping on politics during election season, this person deserves to be evaluated just for having resigned as president and returned to the news scene.
“There is a phenomenon in which the literal translation of being a journalist is not worth doing because of old age, and it is treated as if it is worth going into politics. ."
The program I made after returning to Newstapa is <Moon Jae-in's Four Major Lectures>.
He said that if the current government had actively informed and persuaded the necessity of re-naturalization of the four rivers as promised at the beginning, there would be fewer people asking 'what's wrong with the four major rivers project' like now.
To this person, if Lee Myung-bak ruined the Four Rivers, Moon Jae-in is the one who neglected it.
5. <"Public broadcasting should be in a political neutral zone">
It cannot be said that the Moon Jae-in government established principles and made efforts to implement them.
He has mentioned several times that he has not kept his promises to keep public broadcasting from being dominated by certain parties.
"It was not that they did not make a decision, but that they made a political decision not to change it. In other words, I think that they expressed their will not to let go of the advantage they enjoyed during the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye eras, even though they were few... is the opinion of the core of the regime, and I don’t think that is necessarily President Moon Jae-in’s idea, but nonetheless, there are parts that must be ratified by the president in the end, and I think President Moon Jae-in has a great responsibility in that respect.”
-There is concern that public broadcasting will be able to ride a draft again if there is a change of government even though the election is near.
“There is definitely that aspect. It is also true that such things are creating a vicious cycle that increasingly disappoints the public and diminishes the credibility of public broadcasting. So, a change that neutralizes the governance structure of public broadcasting is absolutely necessary. The Moon Jae-in government will do the same. I made a promise and had no will to fulfill that part.”
The biggest responsibility lies with the Blue House and the ruling party, but I wanted to ask what did people like you do.
I tried my best, but he said that the position of the president is not a place where he can speak as he pleases.
This person strongly sympathized with the statement that the political stance of public broadcasting should be in the middle rather than now.
"I think so too. If we pursue justice too much, there are cases where it is too much, and such things cause another backlash, and the public perceives public broadcasting as biased, and there are many such parts. I think there was such unnecessary. "
It has been said that justice cannot and should not be monopolized.
This person believes that broadcasting should not represent a particular faction, but there are others who believe that it should break free from the swamp of mechanical neutrality and objective reporting.
Even within the same progressive fence, there are many differences of opinion about public broadcasting.
6. <Progressive journalist criticizing progress>
It is true that he is a progressive, but he also said that there is a problem.
An example was the view of North Korea.
"If I say, 'Are you not a progressive,' I have no intention of denying it, because I am not a conservative at all. But in my opinion, some of the ideological orientations of Korean society are close to being conservative."
- What parts are like that?
"I think it is quite wrong to say that the progressive camp does not talk well about North Korea issues, especially North Korea's human rights issues. , I don't think it's right to ignore the shortcomings. It's not morally right and I think that's the point where those parts will be morally and ethically criticized later."
It wasn't easy to guess what I really wanted to say.
For example, when you say something like this.
"I don't agree with the progressive side's view of the country's situation, but nevertheless, there are parts I don't agree with about certain trends in the many reports that have been made so far."
It was vague where the hell this person wanted to focus.
For those who did not want to be bound by factional views, the past few years under the Moon Jae-in administration were painful and lonely, feeling that the place to stand was narrowed.
Could this person have felt the same way?
"No, I'm not that honest and I'm not that brave. If you look on Facebook, there are people who say they broke up with their friends because of such issues, but I hope I can somehow persuade them through conversation rather than doing that. However, there are a lot of things that I am thinking about on my own because I do not have the skills or skills to lead the conversation on such issues.”
I scolded Kim Eo-jun about the 2020 Sewol ferry conspiracy theory.
When a phenomenon that one does not understand appears, there is a problem with the attitude of connecting it to someone else's manipulation or conspiracy.
For this person who put the facts first, it was a natural observation.
“When public broadcasters were not able to do their job, they played a lot of roles as ciders and gave hope to the people. "
-Isn't it true that there were some people who thought we should mobilize their voices politically?
"Yes. I think there is always such a political intention. But it would be nice if it could find its place within the media world or within civil society through appropriate checks, but I don't think those aspects have worked out yet."
7. <Things to do and things to do>
We are sixty-three years old, and we have a grandson who attends middle school, but he looked young enough to believe that he was in his mid-50s.
Even now, he is a man who goes into the middle of a river wearing boots that go up to his chest and reports, but he was not the face of a young man who couldn't control his blood.
It was the face of a mature middle-aged man who was getting old.
What kind of force has moved this person so far?
Knowing that, he would be able to guess the path this person would take in the future.
"I've always thought about what I could come up with and reveal something among the most important issues in our society. After making choices based on that criteria, I think I ended up doing things like the Hwang Woo-seok case, prosecutors and sponsors, and the four major rivers. When you enter, the desire to know comes into play. I think about what this is and what is behind it, and I think that desire is also one of the fundamental human needs."
Thinking of improving the governance structure of public broadcasting as a lifelong task, he might have been able to become a media activist.
It is a choice between what you need to do and what you want to do.
Compared to the performance, the evaluation of this person feels a bit shallow.
If I write down the list of programs this person has produced, I wonder how many broadcast journalists outperform this person.
It may be because he is recognized as a person representing the position of a certain faction, or the strong symbolic color of MBC.
This is how I summarized what I learned and felt through many battles.
“The Korean society may be shaken for a moment through the will of the powerful or the misjudgment of any institution, but I thought that it could be corrected by some collective will of the members of the Korean society. "We fired six people, but the union won 93% of the trials. Considering the standards by which Korean society judges justice and truth, this is unfair. So I have basic trust in Korean society."
8. <Reflection, Repentance and Commitment>
He rarely showed his emotions well.
Despite the harsh question, his voice did not rise or his eyes wavered.
Even when you smile, you don't smile completely.
laugh less
It's a strange expression
I've seen a lot of video material, but I don't see any tears.
When meeting the person who fired him, when facing an MB with a bad relationship, or when dealing with Kim Ki-chun, who led the investigation into the espionage case in the 1970s, this person's eyes do not burn with anger or his voice trembles with anger.
They are also stingy in expressing their emotional sympathy to others.
In the movie <Confession>, the scene of meeting a Zainichi Korean who was tortured by the Central Intelligence Agency and destroyed both in mind and body is a heartbreaking scene, but this person's expression is calm.
In the scene of delivering news of the father of a North Korean defector, who died during the NIS investigation, to his young daughter in North Korea by phone, the close-up of the man's eyes seemed to waver for a moment, but he did not show tears or choked.
There was even a time when he gave a disrespectful order to his cherished junior, saying, "You are a lazy person by nature."
As a boss, he appealed to this man that he was so reprimanded that he would rather die.
We are not the only ones who have fallen victim to this person's coverage.
It was a fate that was unavoidable, but it was a life where there were more criticisms than praises.
- There are people who get hurt regardless of their intentions, and there are cases where the wounds are irreversible.
"There is such a thing. So, I try not to overdo it. I always think that criticism should always be accurate and should not be excessive. If you have covered about 100, it may not be right to tell you all 100. Isn't that the right attitude? I don't take that as a rule, but I try not to overdo it."
Park Jang-ho, the head of MBC's Planning and Coordination Division, said that this person was a person who chose the path of a journalist between the path of a journalist and the path of a manager.
Jung Jae-hong said he admires him because he is a proud journalist.
It is probably in a similar vein that a famous Japanese film director said that he envy this man, his films, and Korea.
"The reason I was moved by the Korean documentary <Accomplices> and at the same time was very discouraged and jealous is that in Japan, the perception that 'we must fight and obtain freedom of the press by fighting power' is not only for media workers but also for ordinary citizens. In <Koreeda Hirokazu, Let's Continue with a Small Story>
, some stories sounded like reflection, others like remorse.
Of course, there were a lot of things that sounded like determination and determination.
It was time to put the story together, but it seemed that there was still much left to say.
The words that I have not been able to say to the writer will be told through my work and on site.
No matter how the government changes.
*The full video of the interview with PD Choi Seung-ho will be released for the first time on the SBS News YouTube channel at 8:25 pm on the 26th.