Uri Party Backs Press Arbitration Laws

The Uri Party decided to submit an advisory opinion supporting the constitutionality of the “Law Regarding the Guarantee of Newspapers’ Freedom and Function” and the “Law Regarding Press Arbitration and Relief from Damages,” according to internal meeting documents that the Uri Party distributed at a policy meeting yesterday.

The party is currently preparing a statement declaring the background and reasons for its position, and plans to submit this before April 6 to the Constitutional Court in the name of all of its lawmakers.

It has been reported that the Uri Party is also planning to pursue ways to acquire the signatures of lawmakers from the Millennium Democratic Party as well as those from the Democratic Labor Party on its proposal.

Documents from an Uri Party internal meeting reveal that Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo’s filing of a constitutional petition on the constitutionality of Newspaper and Press Arbitration law is seen as, “Filing constitutional petitions every single time neutralizes the National Assembly, which is the representative of the people.”

Nevertheless, constitutional petitioning is a system under the Constitution that allows people to demand the abolishment or revision of a law passed by the legislative branch that infringes upon the constitutionally granted rights, in order to keep the three branches in check. If such right is interpreted as “neutralizing the National Assembly,” it will be difficult for them to avoid the criticism of trying the make the legislative branch omnipotent.

Soongsil University Constitutional Law professor Kang Kyung-seok pointed out, “Such thinking only means that they do not understand the significance of the constitutional separation of power, legislative power, and the Constitutional Court, which is the ultimate institution for interpreting the law.”

In addition, trying to gain the signatures of not only its lawmakers but also the lawmakers of both the Millennium Democratic Party and Democratic Labor Party might also lead to problems. In the process of constitutional petition hearings, there can be mutual attacks between concerned parties, but if a large number of lawmakers show up, it can give the image that the legislative branch is trying to boast its power to the Constitutional Court, which exists to check and balance the legislative branch.

Even the Court Suggested its Unconstitutionality—

According to Uri Party documents, “The reason of legislating press related laws is to solve the chronic problems of the Korean press in which distortion and subjective reports are too severe.”

However, in January, Seoul District Court accepted Chosun Ilbo’s claims that some articles of the Press Arbitration Law had unconstitutional elements and suggested to the Constitutional Court to judge its constitutionality, saying, “In conclusion, it will seriously constrict doubt raising press reports, hence infringing on the essence of freedom of press.”

It can be seen that even the courts acknowledged some unconstitutionality of the press related laws.

Dong-A Ilbo filed a constitutional petition in March of last year on article 17 of Newspaper Law that restricts the market share of newspaper companies and three other articles as well as some articles in the Press Arbitration Law.

Internal Opinion is Not Yet Converged—

The advisory opinion that the Uri Party will submit to the Constitutional Court is planned to be finished by the morning of April 5 by the Uri Party Culture and Tourism Senior Expert Member. However, inside the party there are voices citing the lack of opinion convergence regarding this issue.

An official of the Uri Party Policy Committee commented, “If the advisory opinion is submitted, it will probably be seen as the party confronting some press media, and this might affect the upcoming local elections, so as I know it, internally, there are some different opinions regarding obtaining all the lawmakers’ signatures.”

In-Jik Cho Dong-Yong Min cij1999@donga.com mindy@donga.com