Lawmaker Submits Bill to Ban Portals From Editing News
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Rep. Shim Jae-chul of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) Friday submitted a bill to ban Internet portals from editing the headlines or contents of newspaper articles when they upload them to their Web sites.
Under the revision, those responsible at portals will receive a jail term or a fine of up to 20 million won if they alter the headlines, contents or both. They also will get comparable punishment if they fabricate the number of readers having read the articles.
``Internet portals have changed headlines and even edited parts of newspaper articles without permission from the reporters or print media, and sometimes these stories were used out of context,'' Rep. Shim said.
Portals have not taken responsibility for running misleading stories as currently there are no regulations requiring them to, the lawmaker said.
The measure against portals comes after three newspapers ― the Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and DongA Ilbo ― decided not to allow Internet portal site Daum to run their news articles on its site.
On July 7, the Chosun Ilbo announced it would no longer offer its news contents to the portal site, which runs a mammoth online discussion forum called Agora.
Some 1.4 million bloggers visit the online forum on average every day.
The Chosun maintained in a statement that Daum provided its visitors with an ``online discussion forum which was used as a major vehicle to damage the profits of the paper as well as its business partners'' and therefore decided to act against the ``slander and groundless accusations'' aimed at tarnishing its name.
Later, the JoongAng Ilbo and DongA Ilbo joined the move, claiming the portal site played a role in spreading misleading public opinion by using their news contents to serve its own cause.
The three print media giants' decision came after some members of the online blockbuster forum launched a consumer boycott campaign against them.
These online activists claimed the three ``conservative'' newspapers ran propaganda news stories supporting the government's position on the resumption of American beef imports, while ignoring the possible health threat caused by mad cow disease.
These bloggers also coerced the three papers' business clients which placed online and offline ads, warning they would launch consumer boycotts against them if they continued to run ads in the papers.
The boycott campaign dealt a blow to the newspapers with many companies pulling ads for fear of possible negative publicity.
The case was brought to the Korea Communications Standards Commission, which concluded that calling for the consumer boycott was illegal.