Seoul Metro to Abolish Subway 'Opinion Ads' Amid Ongoing Controversies

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Seoul Metro Corporation has decided to discontinue opinion advertisements in subway stations.

The corporation announced on the 14th that it is proceeding with revising its advertising management regulations to no longer accept opinion advertisements and only allow commercial advertisements.

The corporation also plans to abolish the Advertising Review Committee and entrust the review of commercial advertisements to the Korea Autonomous Advertising Review Organization. The corporation explained that allowing certain opinion advertisements could lead to misunderstandings that the opinions represent the corporation’s stance, and this move aims to enhance neutrality.

Opinion advertisements are ads where individuals or groups express opinions on important issues or matters on which social consensus has not yet been reached. They are distinguished from general commercial advertisements that promote companies, products, or services. From 2018 to May of this year, 39 opinion advertisements were submitted to the corporation, accounting for only 0.08% of the total 47,705 advertisements.

However, controversies often arose during the advertisement approval process. In March 2019, the corporation’s Advertising Review Committee established review standards prohibiting advertisements that promote specific politicians, religions, or ideologies, but disputes continued afterward. Last year, the committee twice rejected memorial advertisements for the late Corporal Byeon Hee-su but approved them after recommendations from the Human Rights Commission. Recently, advertisements demanding an investigation into the Sewol ferry disaster were rejected on the grounds that they could interfere with the corporation’s political neutrality.

Regarding the corporation’s policy to abolish opinion advertisements, criticism has been raised that it infringes on freedom of expression, while counterarguments suggest that opinion advertisements need to be filtered since the subway is a public space. A corporation official stated, "This decision was made amid internal consensus that it is better to maintain political neutrality since the subway is a public space."

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