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During audits on the Fair Trade Commission and KBS by the National Assembly's Administrative Affairs and Culture and Tourism committees on Monday, the constitutionality of limits placed on newspaper market shares, a party position decided upon by the ruling Uri Party, became an article of contentions. During a policy committee meeting Sunday, the Uri Party decided on plans to regulate newspaper market shares by designating as monopolistic a) if the top newspaper company occupies more than 30 percent market share; or b) if the top three newspaper companies occupy more than 60 percent market shares.
Grand National Party (GNP) lawmakers Kwon Yeong-se and Na Gyeong-won, members of the Administrative Affairs Committee said, "The strengthening of anti-monopoly regulations against newspapers alone -- the Free Trade Commission calls for companies to be designated monopolistic only when the leading firm takes over 50 percent of market share or the top three more than 75 percent -- is a violation of the constitutional principle forbidding excess regulation." They added, "Moreover, it's not clear whether market shares would be determined by sales, circulation or subscribers, or whether they would include advertisement revenues." In particular, Rep. Na said, "They say they lowered the criteria [to be designated monopolistic] because newspapers are public interest businesses, but the electric power and communications businesses, which are of much stronger public character, still come under the 60 percent/70 percent principle of the Fair Trade Law." Fellow GNP lawmaker Lee Gye-gyeong said, "The 30 percent/60 percent standard was made by calculating the market shares of those newspapers critical of the current administration."
GNP lawmaker Park Hyeong-jun of the Culture and Tourism Committee said, "KBS 1TV's 'Media Focus' reported on Saturday that France regulates media firms that take up over 30 percent of the market, while Spain and Italy regulates those media companies that surpass 20 percent of the market, but this was a distortion of the facts." He said, "Germany regulates only its broadcasters to 30 percent viewer ratings, but it does not regulate newspapers, while in other countries, those regulations are only applied when media companies merge. The newspaper market share regulations that the ruling party is calling for could be found nowhere else in the world, and didn't KBS intentionally make a false report?"
About this, Uri Party lawmakers said, "Unlike manufacturers, newspaper companies must be backed with social responsibility, impartiality, and public interest. Because the current newspaper market is unfair, it needs an even stricter standard." Rep. Shin Hak-yong said, "Even if the law were amended, all we could say is it would be a simply formality for the newspapers. In order to regularize the newspaper market, we need to place stronger regulations on market shares." He said, "The three major daily papers take up 70.3 percent of the newspaper market -- the Chosun Ilbo with 26.8 percent, Joongang Ilbo with 22.9 percent and Dong-A Ilbo with 20.6 percent. If the media law were passed, these three newspaper companies would be assumed as monopolies." Shin added, "The market shares of the three major daily papers could be found in materials recently submitted by the Fair Trade Commission to the office of Uri Party lawmaker Mun Hak-jin."
Kang Cheol-gyu, the head of the Free Trade Commission, indicated he agreed with the media law, saying, "Personally, I think we must review the monopoly designation process comprehensively considering the characteristics of the newspaper market." He added, however, "We have yet to research newspaper market shares."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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