Never lie and Invent Details

Never lie and Invent Details 

The reason millions of healthy – minded Koreans either quit eating beef or eat only organic and natural beef is not because they don’t want to consume beef from North America bovine but rather because of ‘PD Notepad’s over exaggeration reporting’. 

PD (Producer) Notepad has built a strong reputation over the years with groundbreaking reports that have sent ripples across the world, such as the scientist Hwang Wook Suk’s stem cell reports and president Lee Myung-bak’s election. PD Notepad aired a wrong report on mad cow disease. The Seoul District Court ruled that the report by MBC, one of the country's three major broadcasters, on the danger of mad cow disease was partially wrong and exaggerated the threat.

After the report aired, tens of thousands took to the streets against an agreement Seoul and Washington signed April 18 to unconditionally resume U.S. beef imports. Tens of thousands of people have rallied for weeks, many of them apparently responding to Internet scare campaigns and MBC's investigative news program 'PD Notepad'.South Korea court ordered TV station to correct the mad cow report. MBC, a Seoul-based broadcaster, has offered an apology over its controversial report about the danger of mad cow disease that triggered public uproar against U.S. beef imports. MBC, one of the country's three major

 networks, said in a two-minute broadcast Tuesday night, "We would like to offer a sincere apology to our viewers (over the report)." He also saying the report was partially wrong and exaggerated the threat of mad cow disease, upholding the government's complaint over the report. 

The Protests also led to President Lee Myung-bak offering apologies on two occasions and renegotiations on details of the beef import agreement. 

One of the most famous journalist in Korea, Hong Suk Won says, "I hope this incident becomes an opportunity for PD journalism to return to normalcy."

Journalism ethics can seem as simple as rules I learned in Kindergarten, ‘Be Honest and fair, don’t lie or steal." We, as a journalist, are not writing a novel or essay. Do not exaggerate or heighten the details. We are just reporting an event or situation as it really happened.