Lee Won-wook, Chairman of the Science and ICT Committee, "Naver and Kakao Must Give Up News Editing Rights... Parliament Must Take Action"

Lee Won-wook, Chairman of the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee, is delivering opening remarks at the party-government meeting for the promotion of space development held at the National Assembly on the 10th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Lee Won-wook, Chairman of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee, said on the 19th regarding the controversy surrounding the Naver and Kakao News Partnership Evaluation Committee (Evaluation Committee), "If the submission principles set by the Evaluation Committee are not followed, they are immediately expelled from the portal. Who gave that committee such authority?"

Chairman Lee stated this on Facebook in the morning, asking, "How long will portals and media companies remain in a master-servant relationship?"

He questioned, "It is doubtful whether submission principles that do not properly verify fake news can be considered principles," and emphasized, "If Naver and Kakao do not voluntarily relinquish their news editing rights, the National Assembly must intervene. We need to inform the portals, which control citizens' channels of communication, about citizens' rights and the role of the press."

This can also be interpreted as expressing legislative intent to improve the disruption of the media market by portals, as the chairman of the National Assembly's Science and Technology Committee overseeing portal policies.

Chairman Lee pointed out, "There are only two media companies in South Korea. Naver and Kakao, the two portals, are playing the role of the press," and added, "How unfair is it if such large companies use news as bait to achieve profits?"

He said, "The reason news posting was possible on portals was because South Korea is an IT powerhouse, and there was leniency toward the growth of platform operators to foster future industries," and continued, "However, now Naver and Kakao have respectively risen to 3rd and 4th place in market capitalization on the Korean stock market."

He then questioned, "Even so, Naver and Kakao absolutely refuse to give up their news editing rights," and asked rhetorically, "If Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix had news editing rights, how irrational and absurd would that be? But Naver and Kakao can?"

Chairman Lee also criticized, "The press has values it pursues and edits article placement accordingly," but "now they are only looking for tricks to appear on the main screens of the two portals, Naver and Kakao, rather than the right to edit. Headlines are becoming more crude, and fake news is rampant."

He added, "Citizens know why the press is necessary even without mentioning the phrase 'truthful and fair reporting,'" and "This is also why truth is valued more than breaking news."

He criticized, "Naver and Kakao, which have become giants, follow Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix and are large corporations ahead of Hyundai Motor," and said, "Their expansion of subsidiaries shows greed comparable to existing large corporations."

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