New culture minister vows no more blacklist in publishing industry

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New culture minister vows no more blacklist in publishing industry

Posted : 2017-06-23 18:10

Updated : 2017-06-23 18:20

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Do Jong-hwan speaks during a meeting with professionals in the publishing industry at Changbi Publishers' headquarters in Seoul on Thursday. / Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

Newly appointed Culture Minister Do Jong-hwan vowed to prevent future recurrence of the blacklisting of artists critical of the government.

The minister had a meeting with professionals in the publishing industry at Changbi Publishers' headquarters in Seoul on Thursday.

At the meeting the poet-turned-politician said, "Whenever I meet with people in the publishing industry who don't get rewarded for their great effort, it breaks my heart. I will try to build a virtuous cycle of creators, publishers, distributors and consumers."

President Moon Jae-in appointed the poet-turned-lawmaker as the new minister of culture, sports and tourism on June 16 as a committee of the National Assembly approved the president's nomination of Do as culture minister on June 15.

Mentioning that writers such as Han Kang, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize for fiction for her novel "The Vegetarian" and novelist Gong Ji-young were on the blacklist to be excluded from government support and subsidies, the minister said he will put his "utmost effort not to defame creators' creative freedom."

Do entered the National Assembly in 2012 on the proportion representation ticket of the Democratic Party and won his second term as a lawmaker representing his hometown Cheongju. Serving as the administrative secretary of the parliamentary committee on education, culture, sports and tourism, Do scored much in raising the issue of the blacklist of artists who were critical of the government and were subsequently excluded from subsidies, created by the former Park Geun-hye administration.

In the previous administration, the culture ministry aroused controversy for excluding certain writers and books when its affiliate agency Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea (KPIPA) was choosing government-recommended "Sejong Books" in 2014 and 2015. To improve transparency in selection, the minister said the agency will reveal the minutes and commentaries in the screening process.

The minister also vowed to create a 10 billion won ($8.77 million) "publishing fund" to support creators. In addition, the culture minister said the ministry will develop a point-of-sale system and distribute it to every book store across the country through 2018 adding that this is to avoid a recurrence of the case of Songin Books, the country's second-largest book wholesaler that went insolvent early this year.

The meeting featured publishers and distributors including the Korean Publishers Association President Yoon Chul-ho, Korean Publishers Association President Kang Mar-xill, Korea Federation of Bookstore Association Chairman Park Dae-chun, and KPIPA President Lee Ki-sung.

baekby@ktimes.com