Government Cuts Yonhap News Budget by 80%... Restored Under Opposition Leadership

Government Proposes 80% Budget Cut for National Telecom Agency
Opposition Calls It a Signal of Media Suppression... Demands Restoration to This Year's Level
Ruling Party Walks Out Before Vote... Democratic Party Leads Budget Restoration

The budget for next year's support for Yonhap News Agency, which the Yoon Suk-yeol administration had cut by more than 80%, was largely restored under the opposition's leadership in the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee. The People Power Party expressed opposition to the budget restoration and left the meeting room, while the Democratic Party called the over 80% budget cut a "signal of media suppression" and restored the budget close to this year's level.

On the afternoon of the 20th, the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee held a plenary meeting and approved the budget for next year. The contentious issue that the ruling and opposition parties failed to agree on was the budget related to the national news agency (Yonhap News Agency). The government had set the budget at 5 billion KRW, about an 82% cut compared to this year's 27.86 billion KRW. After discussions between the ruling and opposition parties, the committee finally approved the Yonhap News Agency budget at 25.074 billion KRW, a 10% reduction compared to this year. However, the People Power Party left just before the vote, and only the opposition participated in the vote, resulting in the budget being approved solely under the leadership of the Democratic Party.

On the 20th, a full meeting of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee was held at the National Assembly. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Lee Yong-ho, the ruling party's secretary from the People Power Party, stated before the vote during a procedural speech, "The government prepared the budget under the principle of sound fiscal management," and added, "Since there was no agreement on the budget, I last proposed to pass this issue to the Budget and Accounts Committee while respecting the spirit of agreement, but if the opposition cannot accept it, I will leave."

Kim Yoon-duk, the opposition party's secretary from the Democratic Party, countered, "(The over 80% budget cut) is seen by us as an issue of media suppression by the Yoon Suk-yeol government trying to control the press," and said, "Such an unprecedented budget cut is no longer acceptable to the opposition, and the budget must be increased to support the public functions of the national news agency."

Democratic Party lawmaker Lim Jong-sung also added, "The attempt to cut Yonhap News Agency's budget is a signal of the Yoon Suk-yeol government's suppression of public broadcasting." He criticized, "Yonhap News Agency is necessary as a public news organization but has low profitability. It protects information sovereignty and produces diverse content... Cutting the budget by 80% is media suppression. How are they supposed to do their work?"

In response, Yoo In-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "As the media environment has changed, I think there is a need to fundamentally reconsider the issue of the national news agency," and added, "The budget prepared by the government is for employees stationed in remote areas and translation staff, and the rest requires internal adjustments and policies suited to the new environment."

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's expenditure budget was increased by a total of 351.5 billion KRW, rising by 342.3 billion KRW after a 10.8 billion KRW cut from the government proposal. The fund operation budget was also increased by about 150.2 billion KRW, rising by 162 billion KRW after a 11.7 billion KRW cut in spending. The personnel expenses for Arirang TV, which the government had proposed to cut by 48%, rose to 90% of this year's 11.332 billion KRW, and the budget for the regional bookstore revitalization support project, which the government had proposed to cut entirely, was set at 1 billion KRW. However, including the Yonhap News Agency budget, the budget approved by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee on this day may be changed during the review process by the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts.

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