Five from broadcasting firm indicted in 'mad cow' report

By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, June 18 (Yonhap) -- The prosecution indicted five employees at one of the
country's largest broadcasters Thursday on charges of defaming government
officials with a controversial report critical of the administration's decision
to resume U.S. beef imports last year.

Four producers and a script writer at MBC were indicted without physical
detention a year after Seoul's agriculture ministry filed a complaint with the
Supreme Prosecutors' Office accusing them of airing a biased report on the safety
of U.S. beef.
The creators of the much-disputed episode of "PD Notebook," aired April 29 last
year, defamed then-Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun and Min Dong-seok, former
negotiator on U.S. beef imports, by distorting facts, deliberately mistranslating
and exaggerating the threat of mad cow disease associated with U.S. beef, the
prosecution said.
The Lee Myung-bak government faced immense public backlash following an agreement
with Washington to lift almost all restrictions on U.S. beef, including the age
of butchered cattle, just two months after its inauguration in February last
year. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets for weeks, leading the
president to publicly apologize twice and seek additional terms on the beef deal.
The government argues the local concerns over U.S. beef were largely fueled by
the investigative news program, which suggested that those who consume the meat
could contract the human form of the brain wasting illness and that South Koreans
were more vulnerable to the disease than Americans.
"Such distortions and seemingly deliberate mistranslation led ignorant viewers
into believing that they faced a large threat from mad cow disease," prosecutors
said. "As a result, the two government officials' social reputations were
severely damaged."
hayney@yna.co.kr
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