Did you all get this? If so, sorry for cross-posting. From my observation (I have visited twice), Mediact are an immaculate model of screen industry governance, outcomes and principles. There is no basis to give the contract to anyone else. I am seriously underwhelmed and unconvinced by this response. But how to respond? Should we all respond? Ellie Dr Ellie Rennie Research Fellow Institute for Social Research ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation +61 3 9214 5303 0404 808 900 >>> 영화진흥위원회<[log in to unmask]> 2/4/2010 4:34 PM >>> Dear members of international film/media community, Regard to the recent change of the operating team for KOFIC’s Media Center, we respect and appreciate your opinions on it. We, KOFIC would humbly like to explain the fact and situation on this subject to help your understandings. KOFIC established the Media Center in 2002 under the consultation with independent filmmakers in Korea, in the purpose to support them with better facilities and education of its usages. We consider that our former operating team has executed well and have highly performed to manage our Media Center into a superior level over the past years. Since the establishment of the center, our policy to appoint the operating team was to continue the contract between us and the designated agent. Although we have maintained this policy, the contract was to be renewed annually. However, becoming of 2009, the Korean government (Ministry of Culture & Tourism) had considered contracting with the same agent (or team) for many years without any assessment is not a fair policy for other agents in the industry. Therefore KOFIC was advised to consider the change of system into a public offering so that any group or agent can apply for the operation of the Media Center. We saw this would be more fair policy for the filmmakers. And as the contracted term for our former group has ended as of December 31, 2009, we have opened a public offering to find the managing team for our Media Center. Through an impartial, fair process, the assessment for the applied members has been held, and followed by its result a new agent became the operating team for our Media Center for one year (2010). We believe that our process has been fair enough for all the applicants and it is true that we did not close down the Center nor dismissed the staffs. We understand that this change might seem abrupt decision in the international community but it is certain fact that it was a long time process and KOFIC has been discussing this matter with the film community inside Korea. We sincerely hope you to understand the situation and we assure you that KOFIC will continue to do our best to support our independent filmmakers and media communication industry people as we have always done so. However, we will listen carefully of your concerns and would work hard to avoid any troubles that might appear cause of our new changes. Once again, we appreciate your opinion on our issue and hope you to keep having attention to our works. Thank you. Sincerely yours, CHO Hee-moon, Chairman Korean Film Council (KOFIC)