Park, broadcasters in dispute By Jun Ji-hye The Saenuri Party and three major broadcasters were on a collision course, Tuesday, over presidential election coverage after the ruling party raised a fairness issue regarding reporting hours. The party accused three broadcasting stations, namely MBC, KBS and SBS, of lopsided reporting on the presidential poll, saying their coverage of Rep. Park Geun-hye in terms of reporting hours was smaller compared with that of her two rivals. In response, the TV stations countered the allegation. Kwon Young-se, an aide to Rep. Park, claimed on Monday that "The amount of news coverage on Park is markedly smaller compared to two oppositions, the opposition Democratic United Party's (DUP) Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo." In a meeting with a group of journalists at party's headquarters in Seoul, the former lawmaker said the ruling party found this after analyzing reporting hours of candidates from Oct. 5 when Ahn suggested a meeting to discuss the opposition's single candidate to Moon on Oct. 10." Kwon claimed that the total reporting hours on Moon and Ahn, respectively, were more than double than that on Park. "Considering that two opposition candidates can be unified, this issue has become much more serious than before," he said. "This is because a standard bearer-to-be of the opposition camp, if chosen, will be exposed to three or four times more to the media than Rep. Park will be." Reporters from three broadcasting companies quickly fired back at the ruling party. "If you compare the reporting hours from August, there had been more news coverage on Park. Is it fair to compare coverage of three candidates during a particular time period?" a KBS reporter asked back to Kwon. A SBS reporter also denied allegation, saying their news coverage is fair. Prior to this, the Saenuri had criticized KBS in a statement last week that it has applied especially strict standards to examine Park's credentials compared to two oppositions. The conservative party's criticism on KBS is rare, given that it has been widely regarded as a broadcaster having released pro-government news items. Seven out of 11 members of the board of directors, who have a right to nominate the chief of the station, are appointed for the position after recommendations from the ruling party. Outgoing President Kim In-kyu faced opposition from labor unions when he was appointed for the position years earlier. His successor, incoming chief Gil Hwan-young, is faced with a similar fate as unions claimed that the new leadership will be a setback to fair journalism. Kim was the former aide to President Lee Myung-bak and was in charge of broadcasting strategies when President was running for the election in 2007. Meanwhile, the opposition side viewed Saenuri's criticism on broadcasting stations as an intention to prevent spreading of controversies toward the ruling party regarding the broadcasting issue. The Park camp has been blamed for the failure of leading candidates to have debate on television. Park has made clarification of the opposition merger a condition for its participation in any debate. Also, the ruling party and Cheong Wa dae were criticized by the opposition who said Saenuri is intentionally attempting to dominate the broadcasting station to be helped. Such allegation was raised after the suggestion to sack MBC President Kim Jae-chul had been rejected by the Foundation for Broadcast Culture. Ahn Do-hyun, who represents Moon's election camp, claimed last week that "Saenuri and Cheong Wa Dae are protecting Kim."