In a declaration, they wrote, "This is a deliberate attempt to reorganize and dominate the existing media market and an insidious scheme to form a foundation to win next year's general elections. It is particularly an attempt to attack critical media and prepare for a reorganization of political circles by securing certain newspapers, broadcasting companies and Internet media on their side."

The plans amount to a waste of the people's taxes, and the government Internet newspaper infringes on freedom of the press and must be withdrawn, the statement continued. "We will firmly counter any political conspiracies through Assembly-related committees and pursue the elimination of the budget for the Internet newspaper. This is a replay of the measures former President Kim Dae-jung took to kill the media. We cannot help but worry about the few broadcasting stations that comply with President Roh's distorted media views and are concerned about the distorted and discriminative reports. We will proceed to take appropriate measures."

The Grand National Party charged that the government's Internet newspaper would try to tame the media for next year's elections and would waste taxpayers' money, invade on the freedom of press, attempt to seize another form of media and be tied down with criticizing the existing press. (Heo Yong-beom, heo@chosun.com )