'Fake News Inquiry' Controversy Ends with Science and ICT Committee Subcommittee Deadlock

Afternoon General Meeting: Opposition Party Decides to Abstain

The schedule of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee was disrupted due to inquiries related to fake news. The agreed-upon September agenda for the committee is also at risk of collapse.

On the 12th, Assemblyman Cho Seung-rae, the Democratic Party's secretary for the committee, stated, "Unless the People Power Party withdraws its insistence on holding the plenary session, we cannot proceed with the scheduled subcommittee (Science and Technology and Nuclear Legislation Review Subcommittee)." He added, "I believe the September agenda agreement has completely fallen apart."

Originally, the committee planned to hold the subcommittee on this day to discuss the amendment to the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology Act, the Special Act on the Promotion of Research and Development Zones, and partial amendments to the Nuclear Safety Act.

The disruption of the agreed subcommittee schedule is due to the plenary session planned for the afternoon. Earlier, the People Power Party planned to hold a plenary session alone in the afternoon to conduct inquiries related to fake news. At this session, they intended to raise issues concerning the 'Kim Man-bae - Shin Hak-rim Daejang-dong false interview allegations' targeting Lee Dong-gwan, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, and Ryu Hee-rim, Chairman of the Korea Communications Standards Commission, and discuss measures to counter fake news by the Communications Commission and the Standards Commission.

On the 6th, Jang Je-won, the chairman of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee, is conducting a plenary session. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding this, Assemblyman Cho said, "I expressed that I do not agree with the plenary session schedule. Moreover, the agenda itself, which proposes inquiries based on individual news reports, is unreasonable." He criticized, "No matter how much we concede, this issue goes beyond partisan politics; it is an outrage and madness against the function of the media."

Since the Democratic Party did not agree to the plenary session agenda and decided not to attend the meeting, the afternoon plenary session inevitably ended in disruption.