Following the Passage of the Special Court Bill for Insurrection Cases, Ruling Party Pushes Through the Vote
People Power Party Abstains from Voting
The amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act, known as the "Fake News Eradication Act," was passed at the National Assembly plenary session on December 24, led by the Democratic Party of Korea.
On this day, the National Assembly approved the amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act with 177 members present and 170 voting in favor.
Three lawmakers-Chun Haram and Lee Jooyoung of the Reform New Party, and Jeong Hyekyung of the Progressive Party-voted against the bill. Park Jumin of the Democratic Party, Son Sol of the Progressive Party, Yong Hyein of the Basic Income Party, and Han Changmin of the Social Democratic Party abstained. The People Power Party did not participate in the vote.
The bill stipulates that if a media outlet or YouTuber distributes illegal information or false or manipulated information, they must pay up to five times the amount of damages. In cases of malicious or repeated dissemination, an administrative fine of up to 1 billion won may be imposed.
The People Power Party labeled the bill a "super gag law" that infringes on freedom of expression, and began a filibuster (unlimited debate) led by lawmaker Choi Sujin. However, the Democratic Party and its allied parties ended the unlimited debate around 12:40 p.m. on this day, 24 hours after the bill was introduced, by passing a vote with three-fifths of the members present, and passed the bill.
The previous day, the bill to establish a special court division for insurrection cases also passed the plenary session. The Democratic Party had initially proposed that a recommendation committee, mainly composed of external figures such as the Minister of Justice, would recommend judges for the special division. However, as constitutional concerns grew, the provision for judge recommendation via the committee was removed, and the responsibility for forming the special division was given to each court's judges' council and task allocation committee.
With these two contentious bills passing the National Assembly, the standoff over the filibuster that had continued since December 22 has temporarily come to an end. However, the confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties is expected to continue for the time being. The parties had originally planned to hold the final plenary session of the year on December 30, but at a floor leaders' meeting the previous day, they agreed to adjust the schedule after reviewing the results of the confirmation hearing for Kim Hocheol, the nominee for Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection, on December 29.
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