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| Lawmakers of the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee hold a meeting to review a revision to the Act on Press Arbitration, at the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday. Members of the supermajority ruling Democratic Party of Korea have been pushing ahead with the revision which is aimed at holding media outlets and reporters producing so-called "fake news" subject to punitive damages. Yonhap |
By Jung Da-min
A global network of newspapers and news editors have vowed to stand with Korean media organizations in their fight against the ruling party's attempt to revise a law to impose punitive damages on media outlets and reporters for producing what it calls "fake news."
The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) sent a public statement to the Korean Association of Newspapers, Thursday, to deliver a message of support for Korean media organizations. The association is a global network of 3,000 news publishing companies and tech entrepreneurs and 60 publisher associations representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries, and the World Editors Forum is an integral part of it.
"WAN-IFRA and the World Editors Forum have called on the South Korean authorities to retract hastily proposed law changes, designed to curb disinformation, which instead risk silencing critical journalism and harming South Korea's democratic traditions," the statement read.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has been pushing to revise the Act on Press Arbitration, to allow punitive damages to be sought from media outlets that report so-called "fake news." People damaged by such reports "intentionally made by reporters or media outlets" can claim punitive damages amounting to five times the financial damage they experience.
Despite protests from opposition parties and civic and media groups that the new regulation is likely to undermine freedom of expression and be abused by those in power, the DPK passed the bill at a subcommittee meeting of the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee in late July and plans to pass it at an Aug. 25 Assembly plenary meeting. Six media organizations here ― Journalists Association of Korea, Kwanhun Club, Korea News Editors' Association, Korean Association of Newspapers, Korea Internet Newspaper Association and Korea Woman Journalists Association ― have issued a joint statement against the bill and are conducting a petition in support of the statement.
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| The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers tweeted about an Aug. 10 report by The Korea Times on the ruling bloc's move to introduce punitive damages for "fake news." Captured from WAN-IFRA Twitter |
"WAN-IFRA is also extremely concerned about any attempt to determine, in the context of this bill, the criteria characterizing the intention to publish so-called 'fake news.' This would inevitably lead to abuses of interpretation that are detrimental to the freedom to inform," the global network's statement read.
It warned of the risk of over-regulation and said this could infringe on the freedom of the press guaranteed by the Korean Constitution.
"This kind of regulation, promoted by some of the world's most authoritarian regimes, is often an expedient tool used to silence criticism of political and economic power and thus undermines press freedom," WAN-IFRA CEO Vincent Peyregne said in the statement. "If this change were to go ahead, the South Korean government would be joining the worst authoritarian regimes tempted by reforms of the same order, which are in fact designed to curb free critical discussion."
Amid increasing criticism, the DPK came up with some changes to its original revision plan on late Thursday. Under the changes, high-ranking public officials, elected officials and executives at large companies will be excluded from those who can claim punitive damages, and people who claim they suffered from malicious news will have the responsibility to prove the damage.
But the main opposition People Power Party has claimed despite the DPK's changes, the revision still has risks of being abused and infringing on freedom of the press, saying it will propose its own ideas for changes soon.
As the two parties propose their respective changes, the committee will continue its discussions. But the DPK said regardless of any further discussion, it still plans to pass the bill at the Aug. 25 plenary session.
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