Lees Plan to Revise Paper Law Meets Protest
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
President-elect Lee Myung-bak's transition team's move to allow newspapers to own broadcasting companies is drawing criticism from civic and journalist groups.
Civic groups and the National Union of Media Workers (NUMW) said they will launch a campaign to block any replacement of the Newspaper Law.
The presidential transition team is seeking to ease regulations prohibiting major newspapers from controlling broadcasting companies and vice versa. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism reported to the transition team Monday that it will come up with the alternate legislation.
The People's Coalition for Media Reform (PCMF) and other civic groups plan to hold forums and rallies to protest the move. The PCMF also plans to hold joint protests with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Korean Health and Medical Workers Union and the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union.
``If cross ownership between media businesses is allowed in the fragile media environment of Korea, an extreme oligopoly will occur,'' said Choi Sang-jae, president of the NUMW. ``If the National Assembly pushes the revision of the law without social agreement, we will strongly block the movement.''
The Citizens Coalition for Democratic Media also issued a statement, calling for the transition team to scrap its move to allow newspapers to own broadcasting firms.
For its part, the Journalists Association of Korea said that media industry restructuring needs a more careful approach, criticizing that any hasty, one-sided decision will backfire.
The existing law says any one firm is not allowed to own newspaper and broadcasting companies at the same time. The Fair Trade Commission also defines as ``monopolistic'' a daily newspaper with a market share of 30 percent or any three newspapers with a combined market share of 60 percent.
In June 2006, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Newspaper Law does not conform with the Constitution, but allowed the prohibition of one firm owning newspaper and broadcasting companies.