Controversy Over Fairness: Korea Communications Standards Commission’s Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee

2023-11-05 03:31:47

The National Defense Commission has the right to recommend to the four general programming companies, the National Fair Media Association, and the Korea Media Policy Association.
As if there was a controversy over fairness… Academia: “Excessively biased composition”

It was confirmed that the Korea Communications Standards Commission sent official letters recommending election broadcast deliberation members to general programming channels such as TV Chosun and Channel A and some conservative groups ahead of the general election in April next year. Provided by the National Defense Commission

Prior to forming the Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee for the general election in April next year, the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCC) requested comprehensive programming channels such as TV Chosun and Channel A, as well as some conservative groups and academic societies with pro-government tendencies, to recommend deliberation committee members. It was confirmed that it was done. Since the inauguration of Chairman Ryu Hee-rim, there have been criticisms that the Broadcasting Review Committee imposes excessively severe punishment on critical media and applies lenient review standards to pro-government media, and it is expected that controversy over the fairness of the composition of the Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee for the general election will also arise. According to the data on the ‘Status of the composition of the Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee for the 22nd National Assembly Election’ received by the Hankyoreh on the 5th from the office of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Jeong Pil-mo, a member of the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, the National Assembly Election Committee received election support from multiple recommending organizations (groups) until the 2nd. It was recommended by the Broadcasting Review Committee. The Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee is an organization that reviews the fairness of election broadcasts, and must be established and operated one day before preliminary candidate registration. In accordance with the Public Official Election Act (Article 8 2), deliberation members are recommended by the National Assembly negotiating group, the National Election Commission, the Korean Bar Association, broadcasting companies, broadcasting academia, journalist groups, and civic groups. (9 people in total) The National Deliberation Committee is responsible for the election. This is where recommendations from the Broadcasting Review Committee were requested. First, the National Defense Commission requested that the Korea Broadcasting Association and the Korea Cable TV Broadcasting Association, as well as the four general broadcasting companies including TV Chosun, JTBC, Channel A, and MBN, recommend the committee members responsible for recommending broadcasting companies. Until now, the broadcasting company recommendation deliberation committee has been alternately recommended by the representative Korea Broadcasting Association and the Cable TV Broadcasting Association rather than individual broadcasting companies, but this time, the four comprehensive broadcasting companies were included in the recommendation group. This is the result of giving broadcasting companies that may be subject to deliberation the authority to recommend deliberation committee members.

Institutions and organizations requested by the Korea Communications Standards Commission (Chairman Ryu Hee-rim) to recommend deliberation members for the Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee for the 22nd general election. Provided by Rep. Jeong Pil-mo’s office

It may also be pointed out that it is inappropriate to ask a new academic society, the Korean Media Policy Society, to recommend a deliberation committee member from the broadcasting academic community, which has generally been recommended by the Korean Journalism Society or the Korean Society of Journalism and Information Studies. In particular, the Korea Media Policy Association, launched in June 2019, is chaired by Park Cheon-il, a professor in the Department of Media Studies at Sookmyung Women’s University, who is serving as a civilian member of the Yoon Seok-yeol government’s Media and Content Industry Convergence Development Committee. Regarding this, an academic figure who requested anonymity pointed out, “Professor Park Cheon-il is in fact in charge of government affairs, and entrusting the recommendation of election broadcast deliberation committee members to a new academic society led by him is an overly biased structure.” The Korean Broadcasting Journalists Club, which cannot be considered representative of all broadcasting journalists, was asked to recommend members of journalistic organizations that have been recommended so far by the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Association or the Journalists Association of Korea, but the conservative media, which was established in June 2022 immediately following the inauguration of the Yoon administration, It is also controversial that the National Coalition for Fair Media, an organization, was requested to recommend a deliberation member while claiming to be a civic group. In the past three years since 2021, the National Defense Commission has established an election broadcast deliberation committee five times (including re-elections and by-elections), and among civic groups, the Korea YWCA (YWCA) Association and the Korean Women’s Association have recommended deliberation committee members. Kim Dong-chan, policy committee chairman of the Citizens’ Solidarity for Media Reform, said, “As this Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee will play a very important role in reviewing the fairness of election broadcasts for next year’s general election, the National Broadcasting Committee of Korea, the Korea Media Policy Society, etc. have submitted official letters recommending deliberation members. He pointed out, “It seems necessary to closely verify how representative the organizations that were sent are in each field.” Reporter Choi Seong-jin [email protected]
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