section_path: Presidency (2022–2025)/Controversies/MBC lawsuit
section_name: MBC lawsuit
paragraph_text: MBC lawsuit
  
  The PPP sued four senior executives of local broadcaster Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, including MBC TV head Park Sung-je, on grounds of defamation after news outlets initially reported that Yoon insulted the U.S. Congress. On 21 September 2022, after chatting with U.S. President Joe Biden outside the seventh Global Fund meeting in New York City, Yoon was filmed telling his aides and top diplomats, "Wouldn't lose face if these saekki do not pass it in the legislature?" Although the audio is hard to discern, MBC, which broke the story on air, determined in its subtitles that he said "Biden" in an apparent reference to the latter's bid to increase the American contribution to the Global Fund by $6 billion, an act that would require congressional approval. Yoon's office denies that he was talking about Biden or the U.S. Congress; instead, it claims that he was expressing concern that his country's opposition-controlled parliament would reject his plans for a $100 million contribution to the same fund, and his press secretary Kim Eun-hye suggested that the word he uttered was not "Biden", but " nallimyeon ", a similar-sounding word that means "to blow or waste". The video swiftly went viral, having been viewed repeatedly by millions. The controversy has also brought press freedom in South Korea to the public eye over the PPP's civil conduct involving MBC, with some press freedom groups, including the International Federation of Journalists, criticizing the lawsuit as politically motivated. A poll of 1,002 adult Koreans found his approval rating falling to 27.7 percent, a 3.7 percent drop from three weeks before, and that the majority (61.2 percent) believed Yoon said "Biden" compared to the 26.9 percent who thought he said " nallimyeon "; another poll of 1,000 adult Koreans found an even greater majority (70.8 percent) who said that he should directly apologize for his profanity versus the 27.9 percent who said he did not need to apologize. The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs sued MBC "to restore trust in diplomacy"; this has been likened to the oppression of journalists by the Lee Myung-bak government in the past.