South Korean parliament passes four contentious broadcasting bills

Seoul, July 30 (IANS) The opposition-controlled National Assembly passed the last of four contentious broadcasting bills aimed at reducing the government’s influence over public broadcasters on Tuesday, ending a six-day filibuster by the ruling party.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) led the bill’s passage in an 189-0 vote after passing a motion to forcefully end a 24-hour filibuster by the ruling People Power Party (PPP). PPP lawmakers left the Assembly chamber to boycott the vote in protest, Yonhap news agency reported.The revision to the Korea Educational Broadcasting System Act aims to increase the number of board directors at public broadcaster EBS from the current nine to 21.With Tuesday’s vote, all four broadcasting bills — amendments to the Broadcasting Act, the Foundation for Broadcast Culture Act, the Korea Educational Broadcasting System Act and the establishment of the Korea Communications Commission — passed through the National Assembly.The four bills are intended to reform the governance structure of the nation’s public broadcast media by weakening the government and the National Assembly’s power to name board directors.Since Thursday, the PPP has been staging back-to-back filibusters to block the passage of the bills.The PPP has claimed that the broadcasting bills will only increase the presence of progressive figures on the boards of public broadcasters, while the DP has said they will prevent political influence in the appointment of the heads of public broadcasters.Last year, President Yoon Suk Yeol vetoed the three broadcasting bills, excluding the revision to the act on the establishment of the Korea Communications Commission, after they were passed by the opposition-controlled parliament.The PPP is expected to call on Yoon to exercise his veto rights again over the four broadcasting bills.–IANSint/sha