ED Scrap ill-conceived bill

Ruling camp should stop bid to suppress press freedom

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has come under strong criticism as it pushed ahead with a bill Thursday that would impose a five-fold increase in penalties on media outlets sued for producing “fake news.” It approved the amendment to the current Press Arbitration Act during a meeting of the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee.

Despite growing protests from opposition parties and media organizations, the party is poised to approve it in a plenary session scheduled for Aug. 25. The party has been pressing for the bill unilaterally and in a very authoritarian way without respecting the rules of procedures.

Once the bill passes the Assembly, it is feared to seriously undermine the role of the mass media toward critical coverage. The International Press Institute (IPI) expressed grave concern over the bill. “This bill could be used to silence critical press coverage, especially prior to the March elections next year, and thus could jeopardize press freedom,” IPI said in a report, Tuesday.

The Moon Jae-in administration and the ruling party have been pressing for the bill, citing the need to promote press reform and, prevent and compensate for any possible damage resulting from fake and fraudulent new reports. Yet, it is a known fact that the ruling camp has been railroading the bill in its bid to contain the media outlets critical of the government while mustering support ahead of the presidential election.

Moon said Tuesday that “press freedom is the pillar of liberal democracy” in his statement congratulating the 57th anniversary of the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK). We cannot help but cast skepticism whether Moon has real intention to protect the value of press freedom as he had mentioned in the statement, given the DPK's attempt toward the bill.

The main opposition People Power Party has threatened the DPK will pay the price should it continue attempting to suppress freedom of the press. It is noteworthy that even the minor Justice Party, which had maintained a similar policy direction with the DPK, has been fiercely opposing the bill, saying it should be scrapped immediately.

We urge the DPK to stop its bids to suppress the press freedom, honoring calls for more discussions to reach social consensus. The ruling camp should bear in mind that they will face tremendous backlash from the public if they railroad the bill without listening to the opposing views.

“At a time when authoritarian governments are increasingly adopting so-called fake news laws to stifle criticism, it is disappointing to see a democratic country like South Korea follow this negative trend,” IPI deputy director Scott Griffen said, urging Korean lawmakers to withdraw it. “In introducing severe punishments based on highly vague concepts, this proposal law poses a clear threat to press freedom.”

JAK, and other Korean media organizations ― Kwanhun Club, Korea News Editors' Association, Korean Association of Newspapers, Korean Internet Newspaper Association and Korean Women Journalists Association ― issued a joint statement condemning the move to push through the legislation and began collecting signatures from media employees.