First Plenary Session of the August Extraordinary Session
Broadcasting Culture Promotion Act Amendment Passed
Key Contentious Bills to Follow Amid Filibuster by People Power Party
The National Assembly passed the amendment to the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Act (the Bangmunjin Act), one of the three major broadcasting laws, during the first plenary session of the August provisional session.
On the 21st, the partial amendment bill of the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Act was submitted to the plenary session of the National Assembly. Photo by Kim Hyunmin
On the morning of the 21st, the National Assembly held a plenary session and put the Bangmunjin Act amendment to a vote, passing it with 169 votes in favor, 1 against, and 1 abstention out of 171 members present. The main points of the amendment include increasing the number of directors of the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Foundation, the majority shareholder of MBC, from 9 to 13, and stipulating that these directors be recommended by institutions related to parliamentary negotiation groups. The Bangmunjin Act was originally submitted to the plenary session on August 5, but was carried over to the August session after failing to pass due to a filibuster by the People Power Party.
Prior to the vote, President Lee Jaemyung posted on social media, saying, "It has already been six years since the late journalist Lee Yongma left us, and today, the Bangmunjin Act-which was his earnest wish and a task of our times-is scheduled to be handled at the plenary session. This will establish a legal foundation to guarantee the independence of public broadcasting and the public's right to know." On the same day, the National Assembly also passed the resignation motion of Lee Choonseok, chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and elected Choo Mi-ae of the Democratic Party as the new committee chair.
After voting on the Bangmunjin Act, the Democratic Party plans to sequentially process other key bills, including the Korea Educational Broadcasting System Act (EBS Act), the Yellow Envelope Act (amendments to Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act), and the second round of amendments to the Commercial Act. Although the People Power Party has declared its intention to filibuster, this will only delay the timing of the votes and is unlikely to prevent the bills from passing altogether.
Song Eonseok, emergency committee chair and floor leader of the People Power Party, criticized at a party meeting that "although these are being packaged as normalizing education, protecting labor rights, and promoting economic democratization, in reality, they are ideologically biased and dogmatic bad laws." There has also been criticism that the People Power Party has failed to present effective alternatives to the Democratic Party, which holds a majority. In the case of the Yellow Envelope Act, there were about two weeks of negotiation time, but the party only proposed further discussions through a labor law revision consultative body and did not present a convincing alternative. A People Power Party official described the overall atmosphere as "generally lethargic."
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