Cultural and arts figures will hold a press conference to denounce the Lee Jae-myung administration's appointments of leaders at public cultural institutions.
Cultural Solidarity said on April 19 that it will hold a press conference titled \"Condemnation of the Lee Jae-myung Administration's Cultural and Arts Personnel Policies\" at 11 a.m. on the 21st in the square in front of the Blue House fountain.
The group accused the administration of favoring public name recognition, political considerations and personal ties over professional expertise and the public interest in cultural-sector appointments. It added that filling leadership posts at national cultural institutions and government-funded research bodies without clear criteria or procedures has severely eroded trust across the field.
The organization singled out appointments including Choi Hwi-young as minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Jang Dong-jik as chairman of the National Jeongdong Theater; Park Hye-jin as director of the National Opera Company; Seo Seung-man as head of the National Jeongdong Troupe; and Hwang Kyo-ik as president of the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute. It also noted that actor Lee Won-jong was floated as a candidate to lead the Korea Creative Content Agency.
Cultural Solidarity warned that recent appointments were made without adequate vetting of candidates' knowledge, experience or capacity to run public institutions, and that this trend risks harming the broader cultural and arts ecosystem.
It is calling on the Lee Jae-myung administration to ▲stop opaque, unilateral personnel practices ▲issue a direct apology from President Lee and order the Ministry of Personnel Management to immediately investigate the chaotic appointments in the cultural sector ▲and comprehensively redefine the standards and principles governing appointments in the cultural and arts field.
