Grievance Handler Performance Disclosure Reaches Only 55.1% Among Media Outlets

Senior grievance officers at media companies 70.5% "Field investigation in the second half of the year"

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 5th that it has investigated the operation status of the grievance officer system stipulated in the "Act on the Mediation and Relief of Damage in the Press" and notified media outlets that have not implemented the system of their obligation to comply.

The grievance officer system is a mandatory compliance guideline operated to autonomously prevent and remedy media damages. The targets are comprehensive programming and news-specialized broadcasting business operators, general daily newspaper business operators, and news agency business operators. They must appoint a grievance officer and disclose matters related to the grievance officer’s qualifications, status, position, term, remuneration, and the performance of grievance officer activities.

According to a full survey conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in August last year, among 390 companies, 70.5% (275 companies) appointed grievance officers, and 66.4% (259 companies) disclosed matters related to the grievance officers’ qualifications. However, only 55.1% (215 companies) of media outlets disclosed the performance of grievance officer activities. An official stated, "Compliance rates were high among broadcasting and news agency businesses, but low among general daily newspaper businesses."

The Ministry plans to conduct on-site inspections in the second half of the year and impose fines of up to 30 million KRW on media outlets that do not appoint grievance officers or fail to establish matters related to the grievance officers’ qualifications. In addition, the Ministry will actively guide the grievance officer system and conduct surveys to supervise its effective operation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.