By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo spoke out in defense of the media reform bills pending in the National Assembly. He said that all over the world, the big media trend is the merging of newspapers and broadcasters, bringing disparate media operations under one roof to boost efficiency.
The Prime Minister said the bills are intended to stimulate competitiveness among local media companies and dismissed concerns that the bills' ratification would lead to monopolies.
Han made his comments over the weekend during an appearance on a news discussion program on KBS. Critics of the reform bills say the change would allow large newspapers and chaebol to buy and control television-broadcasting networks, but Han commented that newspapers and major corporations can acquire only up to a 20-percent stake in broadcast networks, which would limit their influence.
The media reform bills, if ratified, would get rid of barriers that prohibit the nation's major newspapers and chaebol from buying and operating television broadcast businesses. Similar business models have already been in practice in other major nations, where a single media giant, such as the Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, owns print newspapers and stakes in television networks.
Local reports have suggested that the nation's three biggest newspaper chains --Chosun Ilbo, Dong-a Ilbo and Joongang Ilbo -- may move into the broadcast business if the bills are ratified. Critics say, however, that all three newspapers are conservative and that the reform law would rob television networks of independent views.
Members of the National Union of Media Workers had been staging a strike since late December but halted their protest last week, according to Yonhap News Agency. The protest attracted the participation of broadcast employees, including well-known news anchors. The union members said they would resume the strike if the Assembly attempted to ratify the pending bills in their current form.