Woo Won-sik "Ruling and Opposition Parties Must Step Back from Broadcasting Act Conflict... Proposes Nationwide Public Consultative Body"

Woo Won-sik Proposes Reconsideration of Broadcasting Act from Scratch
To Opposition: "Must Stop Impeachment of Broadcasting Commission Chair"
To Government and Ruling Party: "Must Halt Appointment of Public Broadcaster Board Members"

Speaker of the National Assembly Woo Won-sik urged both the ruling and opposition parties to make concessions in order to resolve the escalating standoff over the Broadcasting Four Laws (amendments to the Broadcasting Act, the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Act, the Korea Educational Broadcasting System Act, and the Act on the Establishment of the Korea Communications Commission). He also proposed to the political circles the formation of a nationwide consultative body to create legislation that can institutionally guarantee the fairness and independence of broadcasting.

Speaker Woo Won-shik held an emergency press conference at the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 17th, proposing a bipartisan mediation plan regarding the Broadcasting Act and the impeachment of the Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission. [Image source=Yonhap News]

At an emergency press conference held on the 17th at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Speaker Woo said, "The extreme confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties over the Broadcasting Act has gone beyond internal conflict and led to a division of public opinion," adding, "The media ecosystem is rapidly changing, and the global broadcasting, telecommunications, and internet sectors are engaged in fierce innovation competition. This is not the time for such disputes."

He continued, "In the past 13 months, including acting positions, the chairperson of the Korea Communications Commission has changed seven times," emphasizing, "During the vicious cycle of impeachment motions and resignations of the KCC chairperson, urgent livelihood issues have been neglected. This must stop."

Speaker Woo proposed that both parties make concessions. He said, "I urge the opposition to halt the forced passage of the Broadcasting Four Laws and to reexamine the bills from scratch with the ruling party," and added, "I also hope the impeachment motion against the KCC chairperson will be stopped." Furthermore, he emphasized, "I urge the government and ruling party to suspend the appointment schedule for the public broadcasting board members," and "to immediately stop the dysfunctional operation of the KCC and take measures to normalize it."

Speaker Woo suggested establishing a body under the Speaker of the National Assembly to effectively reexamine the Broadcasting Act and related laws from the ground up. He said, "I propose the formation of a nationwide consultative body to discuss this issue," adding, "Let us form a discussion body that includes ruling and opposition parties, civil society, media workers, and media scholars, and set a deadline of about two months to reach a conclusion."

As the reason for this proposal, Speaker Woo explained, "The Broadcasting Act has been debated for far too long, and the vicious cycle keeps repeating," and said, "If we can achieve results this way, we might be able to coordinate on other issues as well." He continued, "Social consensus must be reached by making concessions on urgent issues first," and stated, "Since the Broadcasting Act is the most urgent and repeatedly contentious bill, I proposed to resolve it first."

Attention is focused on whether the ruling and opposition parties will accept Speaker Woo’s proposal. When asked if he had coordinated this with each party, Speaker Woo replied, "I did not discuss it with the parties the day before. Even the day before, there was no agreement between the ruling and opposition parties regarding the Broadcasting Act and the convening of the plenary session," adding, "Seeing that only disagreements were being generated and no progress was made, I thought we could not continue like this and decided to make the proposal."