SBS 'Unanswered Questions' apologized for a broadcast that dealt with allegations of President Lee Jae-myung's ties to organized crime, but the hashtags it added when posting the apology on social media became controversial.
On the 20th, SBS said that regarding the July 21, 2018, broadcast of SBS 'Unanswered Questions' titled "Power and organized crime — one year after the Pattaya murder case," "after the broadcast, the Gyeonggi Bundang Police Station launched an investigation and in November 2018 forwarded the charge to the prosecution with a recommendation not to indict, and the Seongnam branch of the prosecution that took over the case issued a nonprosecution disposition in December 2018. In addition, the Supreme Court, ahead of the 2021 presidential election, applied the 'Public Official Election Act false statement charge' to lawyer Jang Yeong-ha, who claimed that candidate Lee Jae-myung received money from the Seongnam International Mafia faction, and on March 12 last week finalized a sentence of one year in prison with a two-year suspended sentence. Accordingly, the alleged link between then-Gyeonggi Province governor Lee Jae-myung and the Seongnam International Mafia faction has been confirmed legally to be untrue," it said.
It added, "We apologize for raising allegations without solid evidence, citing facts such as that then-Gyeonggi Province governor Lee Jae-myung was included on a list of defense attorneys."
SBS apologized for the eight-year-old broadcast because President Lee Jae-myung mentioned it. On that day Lee Jae-myung posted on social media, "I wonder whether 'Unanswered Questions,' which made the allegation that Lee Jae-myung was tied to organized crime, will meekly run a follow-up report, and if so, what it will report," referring to the broadcast, and said, "Thanks to the miraculous logic of the 'Unanswered Questions' producer and Kim Sang-joong's 'real acting,' I was suddenly labeled a 'murdering gangster,'" and added, "This broadcast appears to be one of a series of operations to remove me: a physical terror mobilized to eliminate me, manipulation of legal risk through the prosecution, and an image-damaging campaign through the media."
Lee Jae-myung said, "The producer in charge was transferred to 'Unanswered Questions' and this broadcast was the first work he produced there, and I heard he left 'Unanswered Questions' soon after. I wonder whether he still considers me tied to organized crime. After this broadcast, they said they would make a follow-up program, mobilized broadcasts targeting the entire nation to collect tips for months, and a large reporting team scoured the streets of Seongnam; I wonder whether there was even a single clue among the tips." He added, "If there had been even a speck of evidence, they would not have failed to run follow-up coverage. To prevent the political burying of people in graves of falsehood from recurring, a reflection and apology are needed from the People Power Party that exposed the manipulation and from manipulative programs like 'Unanswered Questions.' It may be asking too much, but I would like to hear a sincere apology of 'I'm sorry.'"
After Lee Jae-myung mentioned it, SBS issued an official position and apology about 10 hours later. However, controversy centered on the hashtags SBS added when announcing the news on its news social media. SBS included the hashtags 'allegation', 'president', 'Lee Jae-myung', 'murder', 'defense attorney', and 'Supreme Court' while reporting the news. Netizens who saw this questioned the sincerity of SBS's apology and speculated it might be engaging in a power struggle with the president.
The post has since been deleted, but as screenshots spread on online communities and social media and the controversy continued, SBS said in an official statement, "We confirmed that an inappropriate word was included in automatically generated hashtags on some of our social media posts and have deleted the hashtag. We will pay closer attention to hashtag management. We apologize."
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