Yoon Seok-yeol "Media's Biggest Victim of False Reports but... Opposes the 'Media Arbitration Act'"

Easy Abuse of Power, Possibility of Article Censorship

A portion of a Facebook capture photo of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] Yoon Seok-yeol, a presidential candidate from the opposition party and former Prosecutor General, stated his firm opposition to the ruling party's proposed amendment to the Media Arbitration Act, saying, "I, Yoon Seok-yeol, have been the biggest victim of media misinformation in recent years." He explained that the bill is "a law that is difficult for the public to utilize but easy for those in power to abuse."

On the 12th, Yoon expressed through Facebook, "The proposed amendment to the Media Arbitration Act is full of toxic provisions that undermine the media's fundamental role of monitoring power."

He criticized each individual clause of the ruling party's proposed amendment. Regarding the clause that "presumes intentional or gross negligence of media companies in cases of repeated false reports," Yoon pointed out, "For media companies to avoid responsibility for intentional or gross negligence, they must inevitably disclose their sources or evidence of reporting," adding, "Since internal whistleblowing is common in cases of power-related corruption, this will discourage whistleblowing due to fear of exposure."

Regarding the clause that "allows the maximum compensation amount to be up to five times the amount calculated by multiplying the media company's previous year's sales by one-thousandth," he said, "It violates constitutional principles such as 'prohibition of excessiveness,'" and predicted, "Most media companies will deny responsibility, and legal liability will be shifted to the reporting journalists."

He further criticized, "Ultimately, young journalists working on the ground will have to bear the risk of tens of billions of won in compensation if they criticize those in power," calling it "a law convenient only for those in power."

Regarding the clause that "assigns dedicated personnel to the Secretariat of the Media Arbitration Commission or contracts out tasks to monitor whether internet news service providers and internet newspaper operators promptly comply with correction requests," he said, "This essentially means using taxpayers' money to monitor all articles in real time," warning, "There is a risk it could be distorted or abused as 'article censorship,' which only existed during dictatorial regimes."

Yoon stated, "When critical articles about ruling party figures or those in power are published, they will claim these are 'malicious false reports' and apply for access restrictions, corrections, and punitive damages. There is no guarantee that arbitration commissioners, who come from pro-government civic groups, will not make biased decisions by joining vested interest cartels," adding, "Freedom of the press will rapidly regress."

He concluded, "The National Assembly should not push the bill forward by citing high public support without fully informing the public of its contents. It is a priority to accurately inform the public about the bill's problems and circumstances," and urged, "The National Assembly, especially the ruling party, should not be rushed and should engage in thorough discussion and debate on the bill's issues."

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