SOUTH KOREA: Official from South Korea's public broadcaster KBS, accused of making a controversial comment on deadly ferry accident, resigns after angry relatives of ferry victims rally near presidential office, appealing to the president for his removal

Record ID: 214662

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: Official from South Korea's public broadcaster KBS, accused of making a controversial comment on deadly ferry accident, resigns after angry relatives of ferry victims rally near presidential office, appealing to the president for his removal
  • Date: 9th May 2014
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (MAY 9, 2014) (REUTERS) SOUTH KOREAN FAMILY MEMBERS OF THE FERRY VICTIMS GATHERED NEAR THE PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE VARIOUS OF RELATIVES GATHERED FAMILY MEMBERS HOLDING PORTRAITS OF VICTIMS MAN HOLDING AND STROKING PORTRAIT OF VICTIM (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) FAMILY MEMBER OF ONE OF THE SOUTH KOREAN FERRY VICTIM, WHO REFUSED TO BE NAMED, SAYING: "We want an apol
  • Embargoed: 24th May 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Republic of
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Communications,Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA93BVI9XFV77869H8EZ91CI9R2
  • Story Text: Family members of hundreds of children who drowned when a ferry sank last month sat in the road in a sombre vigil steps from the presidential palace on Friday (May 9), demanding those responsible be punished.
    President Park Geun-hye did not emerge to meet the 400 relatives who had marched in darkness to her Blue House office but sent two of her top aides to listen to their demands, including the sacking of a state broadcast official for insulting comments.
    About three hundreds of protesters, including about 120 family members of the victims, sat near the presidential office.
    Clutching memorial portraits of their children and brothers and sisters, the family members were prevented by police from nearing the Blue House, and instead sat in the middle of the road where they sobbed, wailed and shouted in anger.
    Families' grief turned to anger late on Thursday (May 8) when an executive at a state broadcaster KBS was quoted as comparing the dead and missing to the number of people who die in car accidents in the country.
    "We want an apology from the KBS president and the director of the news bureau Kim Si-gon should be fired. It is like the KBS newsroom is killing the people who are alive (survivors, victims and their families), and even the dead ones for a second time. Can we still call it a public broadcaster?" said one of the family members.
    KBS's head of news operations resigned on Friday to take responsibility.
    "Taking the responsibility for not keeping the standard of the public broadcasting, I will resign from the editor in chief position as of today. I hope today's news conference becomes a little seed that would reform KBS, which is the only public broadcasting in South Korea," said Kim.
    The families outside the Blue House dispersed after the chief executive apologised in person, media said.
    The Sewol, overloaded and travelling too fast on a turn, sank off the southwest coast on a routine journey from Incheon on the mainland to the southern holiday island of Jeju, killing hundreds of children and teachers on a high school field trip.
    Only 172 people have been rescued of an estimated 476 passengers and crew on board. The confirmed death toll on Friday was 273.
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