"Untouchable" Online Media

As the presidential race is getting more and more heated, some online media have rolled up their sleeves for supporting candidates of their choices. They are conducting campaigns via articles and messages named "commentaries and editorials," making voters not only confused, but also attracted.

Under the current law, what we call the online media are just home pages without any privileges given to the legal media or press. Nonetheless, they have acted as such, making it hard for the prosecution, the police and the National Election Commission (NEC) to monitor.

In addition, the "online media" are not subject to the NEC`s overseeing authority. Therefore, taking advantage of the loophole, they can, without any regulations, criticize or praise candidates, serving themselves as the fertile field of illegal campaigning.

▽ Current status = The web sites belonging to the online media are pasted with messages criticizing or praising certain candidates. In particular, 20 sites of them stand out in their extreme partisan features.

According to the survey conducted by The Dong A, an "Internet media," whose name starts with A, has posted 414 "reports" on its site from November 27 to 4 p.m. on December 9. Out of the 414 reports, 300 reports were for supporting Roh Moo-hyun, the presidential candidate of Millennium Democratic Party. Most of its reports, other than those about campaigning and rallies, depicted Lee Hui-chang of Grand National Party as pro-America, pro-rich and conservative.

Another "media site" B, in its "report" posted on December 7 titled Status of Presidential Race/Lee Hui-chang on Hand for Candle-lit Demonstration, waged a negative campaign on him and said, "Lee`s hysteric reaction… Lee`s action to jump on the wagon…" Yet another media C posted 7 messages yesterday, all of which referred to Roh as "a clean candidate" or "a candidate who understands the ordinary citizens." On the other hand, it described Lee as a pro-America or corrupt candidate.

▽ Legal status of online media = Under the current law, those online media are not categorized as a periodical. It is just a web site subject to the jurisdiction of the Information and Communications Ethics Commission. In substance, they are not legally different from the regular Internet web sites. In the meanwhile, the NEC and the police are not enthusiastic about policing them.

Some online media refuse the investigation by the police, citing themselves as the media. Last month, for example, an online media site D posted messages criticizing a particular candidate. In response, the police started an investigation. But the site refused to cooperate and hindered any investigative efforts by the police. Therefore, the police, after obtaining a search warrant from the court, confiscated the server of the site to obtain information on the people who posted messages on the site.

▽ No regulations at all = Ahn Byung-do, a senior official of the NEC, said, "The messages on those sites do not fall into the jurisdiction of our organization. Thus, we are not allowed to make any legal judgment on them."

Another senior official of the NEC, in a column he wrote to a magazine, expressed his concern and said, "Some Internet papers are biased against some political parties and candidates. In addition, what they report does not seem accurate."

Park In-goo, a police chief at Gooroh Police Station in charge of a cyber-division, said, "The online media sites remanufacture what the major media or the press have already reported. But when remanufacturing, they distort the reports in a very cunning way. Sometimes, they exaggerate some portions, while, in other times, they intentionally omit some portions. It`s hard to detect and prosecute for them."

▽ Opinions of experts = Experts say that the online media shall be held responsible for instilling the distorted image of what the media mean in the general public. They point out that in other countries, the web sites of similar nature do not make any claim to the status of the media. Nonetheless, the Korean sites allege that they are the media protected by the law.

Professor Kang Mi-eun said, "Legally, the online media sites are not liable. If they, however, really want to be treated as a kind of the media, they should first make fair, objective and accurate reports. "