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The Ministry of Culture will go ahead with a plan to establish 50 newspaper distribution centers in the Seoul area and five other major cities with a budget of W10 billion (US$10 million). According to plans announced Monday, a total budget of W75 billion is earmarked for newspaper-related projects under widely condemned new press laws. That includes W25 billion for a Newspaper Development Fund and W40 billion in a Regional Newspaper Development Fund. Critics say both will be used to reward loyalty to the government.
The office that runs the operation plans to set up 45 of the centers in the capital and one each in the five other major cities, despite the fact that there is little interest. ˇ°For now, no newspaper firms are formally taking part in the service. Six media companies including the Seoul and Hankyoreh Shinmun are expected to take part in future,ˇ± a ministry official said.
The centers are ostensibly designed to provide better access to a variety of newspapers in less developed areas, but incongruously they are all in Seoul and other cities that already have a well developed distribution infrastructure.
Vice Culture Minister Yoon Jin-ryong admitted there was ˇ°some senseˇ± in the criticism, but he said this was only the first phase, and the program ˇ°will be implemented with prudent review in the course of carrying it out.ˇ± Altogether the Information Ministry plans to set up 700 such centers by 2010 for a hefty W100 billion.
There is also controversy over letting the taxpayer foot the bill of distributing privately owned newspapers. Culture Minister Chung Dong-chea said last year newspaper companies should share the cost, but that plan evaporated ˇ°because all the media companies we contacted were reluctant to participate in a matching fund,ˇ± according to an official. .
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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