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Uri Party lawmaker Woo Sang-ho said Tuesday that his party decided on the measures during a recent meeting of its Culture and Tourism Committee. Rep. Woo himself is a member of that committee. The newspaper bill initially submitted by the Uri Party had applied to all daily papers (including national general interest dailies, economic papers, local papers and English newspapers), with the exception of free newspapers. The bill designated as monopolistic any one newspaper with more that 30 percent market share, or any three papers with a combined market share over 60 percent.

If the Uri Party were to restrict the targets of its proposed market share limits to national general interest daily newspapers, the combined market share of the Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo -- which have been critical of the government -- would surpass the 60 percent line set by the bill, so some analyze that the changes made to it by the ruling party were aimed specifically at the three critical newspapers. The three papers take up only 44 percent of market share when daily papers such as economic papers and local papers are factored in, but 68 percent of the general interest national daily paper market, surpassing the 60 percent line set by the Uri Party.

The Uri Party placed its Periodicals Law amendment bill -- which applied to the entire newspaper market, including economic papers, local papers and even English papers -- before the National Assembly's Culture and Tourism Committee on Oct. 26. The Grand National Party is calling for the market share limit to apply to the daily market as a whole, with paid and free deliveries used as the standard.

(Lee Myeong-jin mjlee@chosun.com )