공영방송 사장 해임을 둘러싼 법적 쟁점과 제언 — 판례 분석을 중심으로 —

As a social system, public broadcasting has a heavy public responsibility. The head of public broadcasting is in a position to play the most important role in the front line of public responsibility. However, KBS has experienced a lot of confusion in the past 10 years, with only one president who has properly completed his three years in office. The current public broadcasting legislation creates a lot of social controversy because it has no provisions for the dismissal of the president. The purpose of this study is to examine the legal issues related to the dismissal of the president of public broadcasting system and to make suggestions for institutional improvement by analyzing the precedents of three dismissed KBS presidents. As a result of precedent analysis, Korean courts tended to recognize the president's right to dismiss KBS president as a reason for dismissal by applying strict standards on dismissal reasons directly related to broadcasting independence, fairness and public responsibility of public broadcasting. The court deemed possible dismissal if the president of KBS had inadequate financial management. However, in recognition of the reason for dismissal, the judgment was based on environmental factors such as management deterioration, self-reliance as a president, and the existence of errors in management judgment. Nevertheless, it remains a problem that there are no regulations on dismissal of KBS president in current public broadcasting legislation. Therefore, it is necessary to consider a special majority, formalization of dismissal procedure, and the minimum reason for dismissal through public legal review and social discussion.