[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Myunghwan] The so-called 'Public Broadcasting Governance Improvement Bill' passed the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee's bill subcommittee on the 29th through a sole vote by the Democratic Party of Korea.
The Committee's 2nd Bill Subcommittee held a meeting that afternoon and consecutively approved four legal amendments including the Broadcasting Act, the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Act, the Korea Educational Broadcasting Corporation Act, and the Act on the Establishment of the Korea Communications Commission. Both ruling and opposition parties attended the bill review, but they were sharply divided over detailed provisions. Ultimately, the People Power Party staged a mass walkout just before the vote.
The Public Broadcasting Governance Improvement Bill, which collectively refers to these four legal amendments, aims to expand and reorganize the boards of directors of KBS and EBS as well as the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Foundation, the supervisory body of MBC, to reduce political influence, especially from the ruling party, in board composition.
The board size for each of the three major broadcasters will be increased to a total of 21 members, including five from the National Assembly, four from the Viewer Committee, six from broadcasting and media-related academic societies including regional broadcasters, and six from professional organizations such as the Broadcast Journalists Association with two members each. The public broadcasting president will be recommended by a 100-member Presidential Candidate National Recommendation Committee, which considers gender, age, and region.
After the bill's passage, Democratic Party members of the committee held a press conference stating, "The board will approve the recommended candidate with at least two-thirds of the sitting directors' votes and propose the appointment to avoid appointing a president biased toward a particular faction," adding, "Starting with today's bill subcommittee approval, we will properly finalize the bill in the standing committee (full committee of the Science and Technology Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee), the Judiciary Committee, and the plenary session."
People Power Party members of the committee strongly opposed the Democratic Party's sole approval of the bill. In a press conference, they labeled the law passed that day as the "Permanent Takeover Law of Public Broadcasting by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Media Union," criticizing, "The Democratic Party's forced passage today will be recorded in history as a symbol of parliamentary tyranny."
They further stated, "Due to the unconstitutional and anti-democratic amendment passed, South Korea's public broadcasting will become even more severely labor union-controlled than now," and added, "It must undergo strict scrutiny in the Judiciary Committee." Since the chairperson of the Judiciary Committee, the final gatekeeper before the plenary session, is from the People Power Party, this is interpreted as an intention to block the bill's passage.
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