South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's party filed a lawsuit against a local broadcaster on Thursday (September 29th) accusing it of twisting comments captured during a TV broadcast, in which the president appeared to insult the United States. , his main ally.
The presidential party, the People's Power Party (PPP), sued four senior MBC executives for defamation.
The MBC broadcasts "
reports that damage the national interest... They must apologize
," the party's acting chairman told parliament.
A television camera caught Yoon Suk-yeol making disparaging remarks about US lawmakers after a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the Global Fund in New York last week.
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“
How could Biden not lose face if these **** don’t get (her) through Congress?
“, indicated the subtitle of this video broadcast by the South Korean channel MBC, the audio suggesting the Korean equivalent of the word “
assholes
”.
In it, the president appears to be referring to Joe Biden's proposal to increase his financial aid to the Global Fund, which requires congressional approval.
Inaccurate information
Posted on YouTube, the video exceeded five million views in one day, and the word used by Yoon Suk-yeol became the most popular hashtag on Twitter in South Korea.
During a press briefing last week in New York, the presidential spokeswoman argued that Yoon Suk-yeol did not mention "
Biden
" but actually said a similar-sounding Korean word, and that he was referring to South Korean lawmakers, not Americans.
On Monday, Yoon Suk-yeol himself slammed the press for what he said was inaccurate information that hurt the alliance with the United States.
Neither he nor his office clarified what exactly he said or addressed the issue of the use of foul language.
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MBC has strongly denied any wrongdoing, saying in a statement that its decision to report the comments was made "
based on common sense
".
"
We hope the attacks on the MBC are not an attempt to muzzle the press's mission to balance power
," the statement added.
The channel previously said it "
reported the comment without any judgment or interpretation
".