So Korea’s crippling broadcast strikes are winding down, MBC union members got enough of what they wanted to go back to work, production damage from more than two months of allout-knock-down labour action is being repaired, and the lid has been put on a long-running and simmering issue that is very likely to bubble up again when political winds change.

The mid-November back-to-work call by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) union members followed the formal dismissal of the network’s president, Kim Jang-kyeom, accused of meddling with news coverage to favour ousted conservative president Park Geun-hye’s government.

Fellow strikers at public broadcaster Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) called for the exit of KBS president, Ko Dae Young, for engaging in similar activities. Ko is also accused of taking a KRW2 million/US$1,800 bribe from Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) in 2009 to squash reports about the NIS. Ko has denied the allegations.

The whole issue, including the vote to sack Kim, was nothing if not highly politicised, from big-picture support from Moon Jae-In’s current progressive government to the details of which board members of MBC’s largest shareholder, the Foundation for Broadcast Culture (FBC), turned up to vote to axe Kim Jangkyeom.

Local news agency Yonhap quoted Kim, as he was being ousted, saying he hoped he was the last victim of the government’s “control of public broadcasters and oppression of journalism”. Kim also apologised for “failing to keep MBC’s independence from those in power”.

Allegations against Kim and Ko are by no means the end of the attempt to hunt down others seen to have attempted to manipulate news one way or another. Among other actions, prosecutors have raided homes and offi ces of senior offi cials accused of colluding with the intelligence services to silence critics of former President Lee Myung-bak. The three named in local media are former MBC CEO/president Kim Jae-chul, current VP Baik Jong-moon and the head of an MBC affi liate Jun Young-bae. Allegations include sidelining liberal journalists and banning celebrities who opposed Lee’s right-wing government. Lee is currently being investigated for abuse of power during his term from 2008 to 2013.

Unions at KBS and MBC have long called for independent news coverage in a system historically stacked against anything of the sort in an environment wracked with allegations of bias. And that, whatever else happens, looks unlikely to change.

Meanwhile.... The China freeze that ruined business for Korean producers/rights holders through 2017 looks like it could, maybe, be over. Korean producers say green lights are fl ashing all over the place across all kinds of projects. But, having looked in shock and horror at big fat zeros where millions of dollars of revenue used to be, they’re being cautious about leaping right in again. “We have to see what happens... Some people are anticipating, but most of our industry are now very careful. No one can predict that country,” one Korean producer told us. The suspicion also lingers that China’s move against Korean entertainment was driven by more than the former Korean government’s adoption of the U.S.-backed THAAD missile defence programme. Korean drama, they say, was just too popular and Chinese producers needed a chance to catch up.

Published on ContentAsia's Issue Seven, 27 November 2017