hankyoreh

With President-elect Lee Myung-bak of the main opposition Grand National Party to take office next February, observers expect there to be a big change in government polices regulating the nation’s media industry.

“For local newspapers to be competitive, we need to allow them not only to pursue paper media but also broadcasting businesses,” Choung Byoung-gug, a lawmaker who led Lee’s campaign staff, said on a recently broadcast radio program. “Still, we shouldn’t support them unconditionally. Rather we need to open the market and encourage the players to engage in free competition, providing a ‘media development fund’ for some time. In this process, companies without a competitive edge should disappear.”

Choung pointed out that newspaper companies should be allowed to provide cable and Internet-protocol TV services, but that regulations need to be in place to prevent them from seeking to begin terrestrial broadcasting. “If we allow newspaper firms to run broadcasting businesses, it could prompt concerns over an industrial monopoly by major media companies, but this could be controlled through caps on shareholding,” he said.

Choung also said that there will be an overhaul in the operation of the state-sponsored Korea Newspaper Circulation Service. “The organization, unlike its original purpose, has been structured to give more favors to pro-government media. Considering that not only the government but some local newspaper companies also invested in it, the service should have a system of joint management.”

Choung, however, dismissed concerns that the nation’s three newspaper companies have too much influence. He said, “They (the Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo) have only a combined 40 percent share in the local market, it doesn’t seem to be a serious problem.”

Regarding a debate over whether the national Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation should be fully privatized, Choung said that it would help MBC to survive, adding that the government-run Korean Broadcasting System should provide its services without advertisements to benefit the public.

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