hankyoreh

At its plenary session, the National Assembly passed Media rep legislation that openly favors the Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, and Dong-A Ilbo general programming networks and SBS. It is the height of irresponsibility for the ruling and opposition parties to pass this severely problematic bill, one that will turn the media ecosystem into a winner-take-all jungle and leave us with a conservative and corporatized press. To make matters even worse, the way it was passed suggests a race to get it through while the 18th National Assembly is still in effect.
The bill passed yesterday could well be called the epitome of preferential treatment for the general programmers and SBS. It deferred the general programmers’ private media rep commissioning for three years from the approval date, thus guaranteeing them the ability to carry out their own advertising transactions. It effectively approved a “one network, one rep” system by setting the ceiling for a private rep’s network stake at 40%, and it even allowed cross-media transactions between media of the same type. The main thrust of the legislation, namely the separation of network production and programming from advertising transactions and the application of the same regulations for the same services, disappeared without a trace. Basically, the bill was left in tatters.
At this point, the general programmers and SBS essentially have their own advertising divisions. The division between reporting and advertising is gone. And it is clear what this will bring: the public service character of the networks will be fundamentally compromised by the competition between them, while smaller media outlets will be left facing crisis.
Nevertheless, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle rushed to pass the bill, placing their party interests ahead of all else. The ceiling for the general programmers’ stake in media reps had been set at 10% in the bill that passed the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting and Communications, but the Saenuri Party presented a revised version that raised this to 40% and pushed it through the plenary session. The talk about “reforms” that accompanied the Grand National Party’s name change was shown to be nothing more than rhetoric, and the Saenuri Party blatantly demonstrated its allegiance with the uniformly conservative general programmers. Nothing has changed from the ways of the old GNP.
Meanwhile, the Democratic United Party’s approach has been baffling. Its actions with the media rep bill have failed to match its words, and the party has merely bred distrust in its policy capabilities and strategy. After allowing itself to be dragged around by the ruling party last year with its emphasis on “passage by December” owing to potential difficulties for religious networks and other participants, it merely stood by and watched yesterday as the Saenuri Party passed the revised bill. It is embarrassing to see the DUP explain this away as something beyond the reach of a minority party. It has no way of sidestepping criticisms that the revised version it presented yesterday was merely intended as an evasion.
The bill may have been passed, but this is not the end. It needs to be reworked to better suit its stated purpose. If the public nature of broadcasting is to be preserved, networks cannot conduct their own advertising transactions, and shares in the media reps should be divided up so that no single network can gain control. The only way for this to happen is for KBS and MBC to go under a public rep system, while SBS and the general networks create private reps with the lowest figures possible. If the ruling and opposition parties are not prepared to do this, then the people of South Korea needs to vote politicians who will uphold this principle into the National Assembly in April’s general elections.
　
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]