hankyoreh

the chairperson of the opposition Democratic Party

Democratic Party (DP) Chairman Chung Sye-kyun who represents Jinan, Muju, Jansu and Imsil in North Jeolla Province, and DP Lawmaker Chun Jung-bae who represents the 1st Danwon district in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, tendered their resignations from the National Assembly to the Assembly Speaker on Friday in protest of the Grand National Party’s (GNP) actions taken to pass media-related legislation. Journalists, civic and social groups, and prominent figures from various religious orders, including Father Ham Se-woong, issued a statement on the same day calling for the invalidation of the media-related bills’ passage.

At a press conference held at his office in the National Assembly Chung announced, “The bad media laws are invalid, and voting on them with inappropriate ballot casting and illegal brute force can have no legitimacy.” He also declared, “I will give up my position as a National Assembly member in order to join the people in a fight to save Democracy.” Chung concluded his six-day hunger strike with the announcement of his resignation on Friday.

Chun, a prominent lawmaker in his fourth term, also held a press conference at the National Assembly’s briefing room and announced, “As director of the Democratic Party’s special committee to stop the bad MB media laws and protect press freedom, director of the Committee for Countermeasures Against the Seizure of Broadcast Media, and as a member of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, I was given the tremendously important mission of stopping the bad media laws from passing. To my chagrin and anger, I was unable to fulfill that responsibility.” He added, “I wish to take responsibility for this by resigning from my position as a member of the National Assembly.”

These resignations bring the total number of DP lawmakers who have tendered resignations to the Assembly Speaker to three, following Choi Moon-soon’s resignation on the previous day.

Earlier on Friday, the DP held a general meeting with its lawmakers and made a resolution to resign their seats in the National Assembly. In accordance with this, some 60 DP lawmakers gave their resignations from the Assembly to Chung and left the matter at his discretion. The DP and three other opposition parties plan to join civic and social groups Saturday in holding a "candlelight cultural festival for the people's declaration of the invalidity of the bad media laws" on the plaza in front of Seoul Station, where they will issue a powerful denunciation of the GNP's railroading of the media legislation.

Some 90 major figures in civic society, including Father Ham Se-woong, Father Kim Sang-keun, Hope Institute executive director Park Won-soon, former Korea Foundation for Women chief director Park Young-sook, and journalist Im Jae-gyeong, issued a statement Friday in which they said, "The content of the media laws illegally railroaded through the National Assembly by the Grand National Party, and the process of their passage, cannot be legitimized in any way." The statement also said the passage of the legislation was "naturally invalid, in that it was a full-on violation of procedure according to the National Assembly Act."

Another emergency statement was issued Friday by some 200 university students in journalism departments at 16 universities nationwide, including Yonsei University and SungKongHoe University. In the statement, the students said that "watching the blitz-style passage of the legislation without regard for democratic procedure, we felt anger as university students studying journalism." They also announced plans to work actively for the invalidation of the passage of the three media-related bills.

The National Union of Media Workers announced during the "third rally for the victory in the struggle and the complete abolition of bad media laws" of some 1,000 people in front of the National Assembly in Seoul's Yeouido Friday afternoon that although it would be halting its four-day strike at midnight, it would also be joining in efforts to invalidate the passage of the three media bills.

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