The Cabinet passed a motion Tuesday calling for parliamentary reconsideration of four bills aimed at changing the governance structure of public broadcasters.
The motion, passed a week after the last of the four bills was railroaded by the opposition-controlled National Assembly, will be sent to President Yoon Suk Yeol. Should Yoon endorse it, the bills will be sent back to the Assembly for a revote.
Three of the bills call for amending the Broadcasting Act, the Foundation for Broadcast Culture Act and the Korea Educational Broadcasting System Act to increase the number of board directors at public broadcasters KBS, MBC and EBS, respectively.
The three were passed initially by the previous National Assembly, which was also controlled by the main opposition Democratic Party, but vetoed by Yoon and then scrapped.
The fourth bill calls for changing the rules governing the decision-making body at state broadcasting regulator Korea Communications Commission.
The DP has argued the bills will ensure the government cannot exercise its influence over broadcast media, while the ruling People Power Party has countered the bills are simply meant to increase the presence of pro-opposition figures on the boards of public broadcasters.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo criticized the opposition party for ignoring the reasons the government demanded the legislation's reconsideration last year and accused it of further violating the president's constitutionally guaranteed appointment powers by adding a rule that limits his ability to dismiss heads of public broadcasters.
"Public broadcasting faces a critical moment of having to restore public trust by establishing its independence, fairness and public nature, in addition to making sweeping structural improvements in order to respond to the rapidly changing media environment," Han said during a Cabinet meeting before the motion was passed.
"However, these amendment bills unilaterally passed by the opposition party raise concerns of further worsening public broadcasting's biased nature rather than leading its change and reform." (Yonhap)
