Video On Demand service for "I Want to Know That" temporarily suspended

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: 'Recruit a Yankee strike force!'
Part 11: The Daum signature campaign: 'Let's kick out low quality foreign instructors!' 
Part 12: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 13: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 14: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 15: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 16: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 17: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 18: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 19: KBS Morning Newstime: 'I can also suffer from the two faces of the internet'
Part 20: AES: Grandfather Dangun is wailing in his grave!
Part 21: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 22: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 23: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 24: Growing dispute over foreign English instructor qualifications
Part 25: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 26: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 27: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 28: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 29: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 30: Don't Imagine
Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement
Part 32: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 33: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 34: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 35: Internet real name system debated
Part 36: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?
Part 37: Invasion of Privacy Degrades Korean Women Twice Over
Part 38: 60 unqualified native speaking instructors hired for English instruction
Part 39: The rising tide of unqualified foreign instructors
Part 40: Warrant for Canadian English instructor who molested hagwon owner
Part 41: MBC Sisa Magazine 2580: "Korea is a paradise"
Part 42: Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."
Part 43: Viewers shocked by shameless acts of unqualified foreign instructors.
Part 44: Warrant for the arrest of a man in his 30s for breaking into home of foreign instructors
Part 45: [Cultural criticism] Hongdae club day lewd party incident 
Part 46: Unqualified English instructors seen as major problem here
Part 47: Investigation of the realities of 'foreign instructors' methods for luring Korean women'
Part 48: Broadcast announcement: 'For foreign instructors, is Korea a paradise for women?'
Part 49: To white English instructors, the Republic of Korea is a paradise
Part 50: "If they're white, it's okay?" Lots of English instructor frauds...  
Part 51: A new message from Anti English Spectrum
Part 52: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 1
Part 53: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 2 
Part 54: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 3
Part 55: Viewers of 'Realities of unfit foreign instructors' outraged
Part 56: Foreign instructor: "Korea is a cash and women dispenser."
Part 57: Frustration with low-standard foreign instructors: "Korea's pride damaged"
Part 58: Netizen anger over 'foreign instructor' broadcast

Part 59: Video On Demand service for "I Want to Know That" temporarily suspended

On the night of February 21, 2005, Yonhap reported on another response to the SBS program:

Video On Demand service for "I Want to Know That" temporarily suspended

(Seoul, Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Ga-hui.
SBS TV's broadcast on the 19th of the "I Want to Know That" episode "Is Korea their paradise? A report on the real conditions of blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreign instructors" has had its Video On Demand (VOD) service temporarily suspended.

The production crew for "I Want to Know That" posted a notice on the viewer message board on the 20th reading "VOD service has been temporarily suspended; we hope for your understanding." Along with this it specified that "The sign for S Language hagwon which appeared on screen was not related to the broadcast."

The broadcast of "I Want to Know That" on the 19th reported on the various problems of unqualified English hagwon instructors such as having sex with Korean women and even smoking marijuana. After the broadcast controversy arose as over 1,000 comments were left by viewers.

PD Jang Gyeong-su said, "The suspension of VOD service has absolutely nothing to do with the content of the broadcast. It's just because there are a number of supplementary edits that need to be done." "There are often cases like this, and it will resume early next week."

As well, regarding S Hagwon, he explained, "Onscreen we chose a sign from among [several] unspecified hagwons and erased it, but some viewers posted online that it was connected to a specific hagwon and that the producers had clearly intended this."

Meanwhile, regarding that day's broadcast on the harmful effects of unqualified foreign English instructors, amid the netizens' forceful denunciations was an atmosphere in which calls for English instructors with proper qualifications appeared.

Regarding this, PD Jang disclosed that "Rather than suggest alternatives, for now reporting about the current situation comes first. Even though foreign instructors make up a large part of our educational situation, as the application of measures and laws is negligent, we judged that we should warn people about this first."

And warn the people they did! While Yonhap refrained from sensationalist recaps of the show like My Daily's, one can't help but notice how the government-run news organization described "having sex with Korean women" as a "problem" associated with unqualified English hagwon instructors. If the need for "supplementary edits" after the fact seems suspicious, later that day (February 21), the Donga Ilbo also reported on the suspension of VOD service, but offered another reason:

[Broadcasts] SBS 'Foreign instructor realities' VOD service temporarily suspended

SBS's broadcast on the 19th of the "I Want to Know That" episode "Is Korea their paradise? A report on the real conditions of blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreign instructors" (9:55 pm) has had its internet Video On Demand service temporarily suspended after it was pointed out that the identity of one of its informants could have been exposed.

This program blew the whistle on unqualified foreigners working in Korea as English instructors while earning money easily and dating a number of Korean women, which drew attention such as around 1,000 comments left by viewers. PD Jang Gyeong-su said, "The broadcast video is being re-edited so service will resume early next week."

Reporter Seo Jeong-bo

That "the identity of one of its informants could have been exposed" seems a more realistic reason. Perhaps they were concerned that someone might discover that they dubbed different voices over the image of the same person (hidden by a mosaic)? Likely not, since it seems viewers didn't notice, and much was made of one of these 'interviews' in which a guys says in broken English that he slept with 50 girls in one year. Still, while it may have been clear to the foreigners who watched it how problematic the episode was, the suspension of VOD service for several days suggests there were other problems as well.