19 KBS reporters exposed to radiation in Japan: lawmaker

SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) -- Nineteen reporters of South Korea's national broadcaster KBS were found to have been exposed to radiation during their business trip to cover the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, a South Korean lawmaker said Tuesday.
Rep. Chang Byoung-wan of the main opposition Democratic Party said, quoting a report submitted by the KBS for the regular parliamentary audit, that the broadcaster conducted a chromosome test on 79 reporters who visited Japanese regions affected by the nuclear reactor explosion. In the test, nineteen of them were found to have more than three abnormal chromosomes, Chang said.
"KBS's manual on the Japanese nuclear crisis was poor although it was supposed to have a manual for covering disaster-hit areas as the nation's main broadcaster in dealing with disasters," the lawmaker said.
The broadcaster did nothing to protect their workers except for ordering them to buy a raincoat and not to move into areas declared dangerous by the Japanese government, he claimed.
It was only after the reporters were exposed to radiation that the company directed the use of dosimeters for measuring the level of exposure to radioactivity, the lawmaker disclosed.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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