KOREA: Parties haggle over media bills

Floor leaders from Grand National and Democratic parties, along with ranking members of the parliamentary culture, broadcasting and communications committee, meet for final round of negotiations

The Korea Herald
Tuesday, July 21, 2009

By Cho Ji-hyun

The two major political parties scrambled to reach a last-minute agreement over controversial media-related bills, as their floor leaders held a final meeting yesterday.

The meeting between Reps. Ahn Sang-soo of the ruling Grand National Party and Lee Kang-rae of the main opposition Democratic Party was initially scheduled at 10 a.m. but was deferred twice as Lee chose to participate in a DP meeting aimed at blocking the passage of the GNP-pushed bills.

"I'm determined to go on an all-night negotiation on the belief that this will be the final round of discussions," Ahn was quoted as saying by GNP's floor spokesman Shin Sung-bum. "I'm not sure if the negotiation will be settled before midnight or will go on until dawn."

The meeting, also attended by ranking members of the parliamentary culture, broadcasting and communications committee, started around 2 p.m. and was projected to continue through late at night. Both sides took a break from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., according to a GNP official.

Earlier in the morning, the GNP leadership, including its chairman Park Hee-tae, visited DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun, who has been on a hunger strike at his office in the National Assembly since Sunday.

"I urged Chung to give the discretionary power over the negotiations to its floor leader on the basis that we had given the same authority to our floor leader Ahn," Park told reporters after the meeting.

On Sunday, DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun went on a hunger strike, asking for a meeting with President Lee Myung-bak to discuss the media bills and other pending issues.

The president, however, rejected the request through his aide yesterday, saying that those issues should be settled through discussions at the National Assembly.

"The media-related bills are bills that were promised to be passed at this extraordinary parliamentary session by the National Assembly earlier, which is why the promise should be kept," said presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan.

In response, the main opposition party fiercely criticized Cheong Wa Dae, stating that it was pursuing a "wrong attitude" during a critical period.

"DP Chairman Chung proposed a meeting with the president after a great amount of thinking but the response came immediately," Lee Kang-rae said during a meeting with its lawmakers.

He also said, "If the leader of the main opposition party proposed to hold such a meeting I believe it's the president's duty to the political circle and the people to at least to show some careful consideration of the matter."

Regarding GNP former Chairman Park Geun-hye's position over the passage of media-related bills, Lee said the comments were "fair and appropriate."

"What the GNP is doing to patch up the words of the former chairwoman is the same as distorting the minds of the people," he added.

Park had voiced opposition to the GNP's move to have National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o invoke his authority to call a floor vote on the media bills unless a compromise was reached with the DP by Sunday.

She was quoted by her aide as saying she would cast a vote against the bills if she attends the voting session, striking a different tone with its party's mainstreamers.

The mainstreamers had stressed they would press the Assembly speaker once more to exercise his authority yesterday, setting a deadline at last Sunday for negotiations with the DP.

In a related event, Assembly Speaker Kim said yesterday he would make things difficult for any party that attempts to take over his seat.

"We could find a solution to the matter since a meeting is scheduled between the floor leaders. But both parties should not pursue opinions that will end up being time-consuming or one-sided," he said.

The ongoing extraordinary session is set to end on July 25 and the next regular parliamentary session will be convened in September.

Date Posted: 7/21/2009