National Assembly remains deadlocked over controversial broadcasting bills
Opposition lawmakers leave a plenary session of the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) vowed to press ahead with its plan to pass four contentious broadcasting bills aimed at reducing the government’s influence over public broadcasters, despite strong protest from the ruling People Power Party (PPP).
The opposition-controlled National Assembly passed amendments to the Foundation for Broadcast Culture Act, Monday, as the DPK ended the ruling People Power Party’s filibuster after nearly 31 hours.
A filibuster involves lawmakers holding the floor for extended periods as a way to prevent a vote or delay the passage of a bill. Under the National Assembly Act, a filibuster can be stopped after 24 hours if at least three-fifths or 180 lawmakers consent to it.
The bill was approved in a plenary session with 187 votes in favor out of 187 lawmakers present. All members of the PPP, which has opposed the bill, walked out of the chamber before voting began.
The revision to the Foundation for Broadcast Culture Act aims to increase the number of board directors at public broadcaster MBC from the current nine to 21 and expand the authority to recommend members from the government to media-related academic circles and viewer committees.
Earlier, the DPK pushed through two other bills — a revision to the act on the establishment of the Korea Communications Commission on Friday and a revision to the Broadcasting Act on Sunday. They are also intended to reform the governance structure of the nation’s public broadcast media by weakening the government and Assembly’s power to name board directors.
The PPP expressed grave concerns that such revisions have a high possibility of endangering impartiality in public broadcasting.
“The DPK has been on a legislative rampage. The four broadcasting bills, the confirmation hearing of Lee Jin-sook, the chairperson nominee of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), and the impeachment attempt of KCC Vice Chairman Lee Sang-in, are all part of it. If the DPK keeps offering us poisoned apples and asking ‘why don’t you eat them?’ we have no choice but to reject them for the sake of the people,” Han Dong-hoon, chairman of the PPP, said during the conservative party's Supreme Council meeting, Monday.
DPK floor leader Rep. Park Chan-dae refuted the claim, saying that broadcasting bills are a minimum safeguard to guarantee the independence of public broadcasters.
“The president and the PPP have attempted to take full control of public broadcasters and turn them into conservative mouthpieces. We will prevent them from becoming partisan networks,” Park said.
The PPP has claimed that the broadcasting bills will only increase the presence of progressive figures on the boards of public broadcasters, while the DPK has said they will prevent political influence in the appointment of the heads of public broadcasters.
National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik bangs the gavel to pass a bill on a revision to the Foundation for Broadcast Culture Act during a plenary session of the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik tabled the last remaining bill — the Korea Educational Broadcasting System Act — which is likely to be put up for a vote today after the PPP’s filibuster ends.
The PPP has said it would ask President Yoon Suk Yeol to veto the bill. Last year, Yoon vetoed three broadcasting bills that had been passed by the opposition-led Assembly.
Rival parties continued to clash over the nomination of Lee, who has been tapped as the new head of the KCC. The KCC has the right to recommend and appoint board members of public broadcasters, which effectively allows it to influence public opinion. On Monday, the Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee failed to adopt the confirmation hearing reports for Lee.