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| Awardees of Sunfull Foundation's award for lawmakers using positive language, and students who picked the awardees, pose during an awards ceremony at Seoul Garden Hotel, Thursday. Courtesy of Sunfull Foundation |
By Lee Hyo-jin
Sixty-one lawmakers were awarded by Sunfull Foundation for their use of positive language and words during legislative meetings, according to the foundation.
The awards ceremony organized by the nonprofit anti-cyberbullying foundation took place at Seoul Garden Hotel, Thursday.
This year, a total of 30 lawmakers from various parties were selected as winners by a panel of judges consisting of 300 high school and college students. They chose the winners by monitoring the transcripts of the National Assembly's legislative meetings over the last two months starting in September.
In addition to the 30 awardees, the ceremony took place with another 31 lawmakers who were selected last year but could not receive the award, as the annual event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This award is very meaningful as the winners were chosen by teenagers and young students. I will continue to use respectful language to improve the respect within and dignity of the Assembly," Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug, who was one of the four top prize winners, said in his acceptance speech.
The other three top prize winners were Rep. Song Ok-joo of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, Rep. Kim Hyung-dong of the main opposition People Power Party and Rep. Lee Eun-joo of the minor opposition Justice Party.
Song said, "I feel proud to be a winner of this award, chosen by students, who are our future. I will do my best to become a politician who shows a good example to others by using respectful and considerate words."
Kim said, "I will think of this award as an encouragement to work harder as a lawmaker, and will always keep in mind the influence and weight of a politician's words," while Lee said, "The negative effects of verbal abuse online have been getting worse over time. I will continue to support spreading the positive influence of the Sunfull Movement."
Min Byoung-chul, chairman of the Sunfull Foundation, said, "I feel proud to hear from the award-winning lawmakers that this award has encouraged them to be more careful about their choice of words and their actions as politicians."
The foundation was established in 2007 by Min, an English educator and chair professor at Chung-Ang University, to tackle the growing problem of cyberbullying and online hate speech.
Currently, 287 of the 300 lawmakers in the Assembly have signed to support the Sunfull Internet Peace Movement. It has also gained support from overseas lawmakers including in the United States, Japan and the Philippines.
