On September 27, MBC announced that on Monday, the Office of the President sent a notice to the president of MBC, Park Sung-jae, asking about the details behind the coverage of the president’s foul comment. MBC expressed regret claiming that the presidential office sending a notice to the president of a public broadcasting company and demanding an explanation for a news report threatened the freedom of the press.

In the notice, the presidential office asked, “On what grounds did you specify the pronunciation, which even voice analysts found difficult to interpret?” and “If one of your reporters specified the comment on his discretion, what was the procedure you followed to verify the fact and intent with the Office of the President?”

The Yongsan office argued that MBC refused to correct the initial report despite the presidential office’s clarification that it was not what the president had said and asked questions, such as “What is the reason and grounds for MBC to claim that the details of the report were from domestic press coverage,” and “When you stated the U.S. in parenthesis after the word “gukhoi (Korean for ‘parliament’)” as if it referred to the U.S. Congress, were you not adding your interpretation or judgement?” An MBC representative said this was the first time that the company received such questions from the presidential office since he first joined the broadcasting company.

In the notice, the Office of the President argued, “Due to the press coverage conducted without any effort to verify facts, the alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States was undermined, and we suffered a serious blow to our national interest,” and asked MBC for “a responsible reply to the questions promptly.”

On the same day, Park Sung-joon, a People Power Party lawmaker, also sent a notice to MBC President Park Sung-jae asking him to explain the details to the People Power Party (PPP) lawmakers on the parliamentary Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee and the PPP Special Committee on the Promotion of ICT and Media.

MBC sent a reply to the questions from Yongsan and said, “We cannot answer the questions.” MBC argued, “Although most media outlets in Korea released similar news reports, the Office of the President sent the notice only to MBC. This leads to suspicions that they are trying to resolve the controversy by using MBC as a scapegoat.” The public broadcasting company also stated, “We hope that the attacks on MBC led by some politicians are not an attempt to gag the press, restricting us from our duties as a critical public watchdog.”