TV program's apology following president’s criticism sparks internal backlash
SBS, one of South Korea's major broadcasters, issued an apology for allegations it raised linking President Lee Jae Myung to a criminal organization, after the president publicly called on the network to answer for its reporting.
The program at the center of the controversy, "Unanswered Questions," is among South Korea's most enduring and widely watched investigative journalism series, with a 34-year track record of probing unsolved crimes and social injustices.
In July 2018, the show aired an episode titled "Power and Gangs — One Year After the Pattaya Murder Case," (translated) which stated that President Lee — then serving as governor of Gyeonggi Province — had been listed as defense counsel for two members of the Seongnam-based international organized crime syndicate in 2007. Lee entered formal politics in 2010 when he was elected mayor of Seongnam. The episode then raised questions about ties between local politicians and organized crime.
President Lee, who assumed office in 2025, addressed the matter directly on his X account on Friday. "I wonder whether 'Unanswered Questions,' which created the allegations linking Lee Jae Myung to organized crime, will readily issue a follow-up report, and if so, what it will contain," he wrote. "I may be asking too much, but I would like to hear a sincere word of apology."
Hours later, the producers of "Unanswered Questions," including the production staff and main producer of the 2018 episode, released a statement acknowledging that they had aired allegations against President Lee without sufficient evidence in the 2018 episode.
The production team cited legal proceedings that followed the episode's airing: President Lee (then governor of Gyeonggi Province) had been referred to prosecutors, and the Seongnam branch office, which received the case, decided not to indict him in December 2018.
The statement also noted that the Supreme Court finalized a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, for attorney Jang Young-ha for spreading false information. Ahead of the 2021 presidential election, Jang had alleged that Lee had received money from the Seongnam-based crime syndicate.
The production added that "Therefore, the allegations of ties between then-Gyeonggi Province governor Lee Jae Myung and the Seongnam-based international organized crime syndicate have been legally determined to be unfounded."
The apology, however, drew swift backlash from within the broadcaster itself.
The SBS chapter of the National Union of Media Workers posted a sharply worded statement the same evening, stressing that "'Unanswered Questions' did not simply cite Jang's claims. Rather, (the show) verified and reported information that had emerged three years earlier in the course of covering the Pattaya murder case, including interviews with the victim and court records."
The Pattaya murder case, involving the murder case of a South Korean in Thailand in 2015, was found to be connected to a Seongnam-based international crime syndicate that President Lee had once defended.
"These allegations had already been raised in other media reports before the broadcast, and the program's role was to bring them into public discourse and examine them. This falls within the media's fundamental function of scrutinizing public figures and is entirely unrelated to Jang's claims in both timing and substance," the statement added.
The union defended "Unanswered Questions" and its legacy, concluding with a direct rebuke of the president's conduct.
"President Lee must stop making remarks that muzzle press freedom and refrain from infringing on media independence through pressure such as demands for an apology," the statement said.
yoonseo.3348@heraldcorp.com
