[2021 Budget] Broadcasting Commission Allocates 243.9 Billion Won to Prevent 'Second n-Bang'

KCC Allocates 243.9 Billion KRW Budget for Next Year
Focused Investment on Strengthening n번방 Prevention
Enhanced Disaster Broadcasting Support for Post-Corona Preparedness

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) will allocate 18% of next year's total budget to establishing a system to prevent the distribution of illegal filming materials in order to prevent a 'second n-bunbang incident.' Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the budget will also be heavily invested in disaster broadcasting support and countermeasures against false and manipulated information (fake news).

On the 1st, the KCC announced that it has secured a total budget of 243.9 billion KRW for next year. This is an increase of 4.3 billion KRW compared to the previous year.

Increased Budget for Preventing the n-bunbang Incident

First, the budget for policies to prevent the distribution of illegal filming materials, which caused a huge stir during the n-bunbang incident, was significantly increased. This is to prevent a 'second n-bunbang incident.' A total of 1.64 billion KRW was added to create an automatic monitoring system for webhard operators and to establish a technical measure evaluation system for blocking illegal filming materials. The budget for strengthening youth protection measures inspections for value-added telecommunications service providers was also increased by 100 million KRW.

A total of 1.4 billion KRW was additionally allocated for building a digital sex crime automatic monitoring system that filters out hidden cameras and sexual exploitation materials distributed online, as well as for the KCC-Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC)-National Police Agency-Ministry of Gender Equality and Family cooperation system for sex crime material databases. A total of 1.04 billion KRW was allocated for upgrading fact-check systems and education related to false and manipulated information.

Strengthening Disaster Broadcasting and Media Education Due to COVID-19

With the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, support for broadcasting and media education will also be strengthened. To enhance the capabilities of KBS, the main disaster broadcasting agency, 800 million KRW was allocated for disaster-related program production costs, and 1.07 billion KRW for remodeling the integrated disaster information system. The education budget was also secured. A total of 4.2 billion KRW will be invested in media education projects. Three hundred million KRW was allocated for producing educational content to prevent damage to non-face-to-face users, 300 million KRW for online internet ethics education, and 180 million KRW for AI-based service user capacity-building education.

In addition, 72.3 billion KRW was allocated to strengthen the competitiveness of broadcasting content. EBS will receive new support (1.36 billion KRW) to produce immersive content (VR, AR) for educational use, and the budget for educational content enhancement was increased by 1.4 billion KRW for education targeting infants, children, parents, and people with disabilities. Along with this, production support funds for regional and small broadcasters (4.03 billion KRW), community radio (200 million KRW), and KBS international broadcasting (7.8 billion KRW), whose financial conditions continue to deteriorate, were allocated at the same level as the previous year.

A KCC official stated, "This year's budget plans to focus investment on improving a healthy internet usage environment and responding to the post-COVID era," adding, "We will cooperate as much as possible during the National Assembly's review process to ensure the government proposal is smoothly allocated."