The Korea Broadcasting Association said on Dec. 11 it secured a ruling for 60 million won in damages in a lawsuit against a YouTube channel that used exit poll results from the 2024 parliamentary election without permission.

The association said the ruling is significant because it legally recognises the intellectual property rights of the exit poll results produced by the three terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS, which it said spend large sums to carry out exit polling to ensure the public’s right to know and to support fair election verification.

The association said the value of the exit poll data had been seriously damaged by indiscriminate citations by some media. It said the ruling confirmed that the exit poll results are the intellectual property of the three broadcasters and that citing them without prior approval is illegal under the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act.

According to the association’s published citation standards for exit polls, the rules apply to general programming channels, newspapers and portals, as well as YouTube channels and individual media creators. Exit poll results must be cited only after the time permitted by the three terrestrial broadcasters. The association said some outlets violated the rules by citing the broadcasters’ election coverage in real time and infringing their intellectual property rights.

The association plans additional legal action against media that violated citation standards during the 2024 parliamentary election and the 2025 presidential election. It also said it will apply the same level of legal measures against violators in all future elections, including next year’s local polls.