Court strikes down 6-month shutdown penalty for cable TV network MBN

An appellate court on Wednesday struck down the TV media watchdog's 2020 imposition of a six-month shutdown penalty for cable channel MBN over illegal financing and accounting fraud. The Seoul High Court ruled in favor of MBN in a lawsuit filed against the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) to reverse its 2020 decision subjecting the channel to a six-month service shutdown. In October 2020, the KCC imposed the penalty on MBN with a six-month grace period, concluding that the network's illegal financing was in violation of the Broadcasting Act. In the first ruling in 2022, the Seoul Administrative Court upheld the KCC penalty, holding MBN responsible for illegal financing at the time it obtained its business license in 2010, and for subsequent accounting fraud to cover up the irregularity. Overturning the previous ruling, the high court ruled that while MBN's irregularities were unjust, they could hardly be seen as fundamentally compromising the channel's social role as a news outlet, and the penalty w as excessively harsh. Source: Yonhap News Agency