My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 446 May
An Rusong had always felt that Lee Min-bo's major reshuffle of the MBC leadership wouldn't be too hasty. After all, the turmoil at KBS hadn't completely subsided. Although a series of personnel adjustments had been successfully completed, the protesters blocking the KBS building every day were still there.

If Lee Min-bo were to disregard the opposition from all sides and directly target MBC at this juncture, it would not only make him appear extremely greedy, but also create even greater public pressure for himself.

As mentioned before, before Lee Min-bok, the progressive faction had been in power in South Korea for over a decade, and none of the previous presidents had taken action against the press, let alone directly interfered in the selection of the presidents of the three major television networks. Now, however, Lee Min-bok, representing the conservative faction, has only been in office for a few months, yet he has already replaced the presidents of two major television networks in succession, which is a blatant interference with freedom of the press.

Therefore, in An Rusong's view, it is certain that Lee Min-bo will take action on the personnel issues at MBC, and it is inevitable that Eom Ki-yong will be replaced. However, the time when Lee Min-bo will officially take action should be scheduled for August, or at least after South Korea and the United States reach a new agreement on beef imports.

But to An Rusong's surprise, or rather, to the surprise of most people, Li Minbo's patience was far less than people imagined, or rather, his ability to withstand public pressure was much stronger than anyone imagined.

In the first week of May, which was also the same day that the Supreme Prosecutors' Office decided to formally indict KBS president Jung Won-joo on charges of "dereliction of duty and causing a huge loss of 1500 billion won to the television station," the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Association announced on its official website that it had formally dismissed MBC president Eom Ki-young from his post.

At the same time, the announcement also stated that Kim Jae-cheol has been appointed as the new president of MBC, and he will officially take office soon.

This announcement once again caused a huge uproar in the South Korean media. That afternoon, the plaza in front of the MBC Broadcasting Center building was surrounded by a crowd of people staging a sit-in protest. Most of these people were reporters and news anchors from MBC television stations—a scene that was a complete replay of what had happened in front of the KBS television station building not long ago.

Perhaps because of past experiences, the television station and Yeouido police were well prepared this time. The police deployed a large number of officers to maintain order at the television center and prevent protesters from storming it.

The sit-in protest in front of the broadcasting center lasted all night. Just when everyone thought that Kim Jae-cheol would not dare to go to the TV station to take up his post, the next morning, close to nine o'clock, the chubby, serious-looking new president appeared on time in front of the broadcasting center building.

In front of nearly four hundred protesters and over ninety police officers, this man delivered a passionate speech, essentially saying that although he had been appointed as the new president of MBC, he was not aligned with the Blue House (the presidential office). As a journalist, he pledged to do everything in his power to guarantee the freedom of news broadcasting and to ensure the best possible protection for all journalists, program hosts, and the programs they produce.

In short, Kim Jong-un is not a lackey of President Lee Min-bo; on the contrary, he is a defender of press freedom and stands with the demonstrators present.

In this way, President Kim Jae-cheol, with his upright character, easily resolved the demonstration. By 9:30 a.m. that day, the demonstrators who had gathered in front of the MBC Broadcasting Center building dispersed with anticipation.

In the following days, Kim Jae-cheol did not make any personnel changes at the television station; he simply met frequently with the station's middle managers and program directors.

On May 6, just two weeks later, President Kim Jae-cheol suddenly made a decision to cancel all six current affairs news programs, including "PD Notebook," and to transfer all the hosts, reporters, and PDs associated with these programs from their original positions.

At the same time, the television station launched a new batch of alternative news programs, whose staff were originally protesters who had gathered in front of the broadcasting and television center building when Kim Jae-chol took office.

Faced with Kim Jae-chol's reneging on his promise, those who were transferred from their posts were naturally unwilling to give up. They organized another demonstration and petition, but compared to the previous demonstration, the total number of participants this time was nearly two-thirds less, and it was no longer a large-scale event.

In terms of handling the protests, Kim Jae-cheol's tactics were clearly superior to Lee Byung-soon's, or rather, far more insidious. It was precisely because the former employed this divide-and-conquer strategy that the personnel reshuffle at MBC didn't cause a major upheaval. However, with the end of this farce, Kim Jae-cheol's carefully cultivated "upright" image vanished overnight, and he became synonymous with "despicable villain."

As dusk approached, a thick, dark cloud drifted slowly across the southern horizon. Just as the last rays of sunset were about to disappear on the western horizon, it gradually spread across the sky above Seoul, turning the once somewhat bright sky dark in a very short time.

Then, with a gust of evening wind, a few raindrops began to fall.

At Renwang Mountain, the headquarters of the First Guard Regiment of the Capital Guard Command, An Rusong, dressed in camouflage military uniform, came out of the office of the detachment of the Aircraft Maintenance Command. He first looked up at the gloomy sky before turning around and waiting for Lin Ya'en, who was a few steps behind, to catch up.

It has been exactly one month since An Rusong enlisted. Today is the second time he has come to the unit where he is serving. The first time was on the day he officially enlisted.

Chairman An is a law-abiding person. He felt that since he was an active-duty soldier, he should look like one. So, he specially wore his military uniform, and even his training uniform, just to sign in at the unit today. "Yesterday's forecast clearly said it would rain at noon today." Compared to An Rusong, Lieutenant Lin Ya'en seemed less dutiful. She was wearing her usual black service uniform, but the hem of her pencil skirt seemed to be much shorter than a formal military skirt, reaching almost fifteen centimeters above her knees.

She came out of the office, carrying a camouflage shoulder bag, and looked up at the sky as she walked towards An Rusong's location, muttering to herself.

An Rusong didn't say anything, but simply reached out his hand to her.

Lin Ya'en assumed he was going to help her with her bag, so she picked up her shoulder bag and handed it to him. However, he turned his hand to the side and said, "Give me the car keys, I'll go get the car."

Lin Ya'en pouted as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she obediently took out the car keys and handed them to the other person.

“You’re just a trainee now, you’re not qualified to drive a car yet,” she muttered after An Rusong took the car keys.

An Rusong had only been in the army for a month and hadn't received any training. He was currently a trainee soldier, without even the rank of private. However, he didn't care about those messy rules. After getting the car keys, he ran straight towards the jeep not far away.

This is a military base, and even though An Rusong has a special status, it wouldn't be appropriate for Luo Minzhi to drive him here in his Saabban. Therefore, when he came to sign in today, Lin Ya'en picked him up in her car, and now she naturally has to take him back.

Lin Ya'en's car was still the same Kia military vehicle. An Rusong took the key and opened the car door, but instead of getting into the driver's seat, he took out a jacket from the passenger seat and pulled out his phone from the jacket pocket. He had left his phone in the car earlier, and the reason he was in such a hurry was because he was worried that someone would call him during this time.

As expected, the call log on my phone showed three missed calls: one from Jenny and the other two from Bai Jinjun.

An Rusong got into the passenger seat and adjusted his posture while returning Bai Jinjun's call.

The call was quickly connected, but before he could ask why the other party was calling, Bai Jinjun on the other end spoke first.

Bai Jinjun called him twice in a row to ask him what his opinion was on the establishment of the "Internet Industry Association".

Prior to this, An Rusong had already met with Yoon Jun, who represented LG, or more precisely, the three major internet service providers in South Korea. That meeting was arranged by Kwon Ji-hye, and the result was that An Rusong directly attacked the arrogant Yoon Jun, leaving him with a bloody head wound.

As a result, the establishment of the "Internet Industry Association" came to a standstill and has been delayed until now.

Actually, it's not entirely accurate to say that the "Internet Industry Association" has not been formally established to this day because of the conflict between An Rusong and Yin Zhuan, because fundamentally, neither An Rusong nor Yin Zhuan has that much influence.

The reason this association has not been established so far is that the differences between internet service providers and content providers have not been resolved.

During the phone call, An Rusong did not explain much to Bai Jinjun. He said that he would visit Bai Jinjun later and explain in detail the conditions that NGN insisted on.

An Rusong has now made his final decision: after completing the next round of financing, he plans to build a large-scale data center of his own overseas for NGN, thereby reducing its dependence on a single domestic internet service provider in South Korea. However, these matters are not easy to discuss with Baek Jin-jun over the phone.

(End of this chapter)