Political feud deepens after media law revisions

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- The main opposition party on Thursday vowed to nullify
standing legislation and oust the deputy Assembly speaker as a political feud
deepened over media law revisions railroaded by the ruling party a day ago.

The revisions were passed Wednesday in a vote attended only by the ruling Grand
National Party (GNP). Vice Assembly Speaker Lee Yoon-sung, a GNP representative,
chaired the session.
Rep. Choi Moon-soon of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), a former head
of local broadcaster MBC, submitted his resignation on Thursday, saying he was
taking responsibility for failing to protect the freedom of the press.
The DP's top leader, Chung Sye-kyun, had already said he will quit should his
party fail to block the bills.
"People will say the Democratic Party did its best, though it lost the fight.
They will say we fulfilled our role as the main opposition party," Chung said at
a DP general meeting Thursday.
"We must work to win the confidence and support of the people until the regular
Assembly session starts," Chung said, also calling for all-out efforts to nullify
what he called "evil" media laws.
The revisions in effect eliminated restrictions placed on the media industry in
the 1980s. Newspapers and private companies will now be allowed to own stakes in
broadcasting companies, a measure critics say will lead to the monopolization of
the media by big conglomerates and several well-funded conservative dailies.
The opposition party initiated legal proceedings Thursday, filing petitions with
the Constitutional Court to seek the nullification of the revisions.
Soon after some 150 members of the majority GNP cast their ballots in three
separate polls to legislate the revisions, the opposition party charged that many
of the votes were cast not by legislators but by their aides or colleagues.
Photos of a woman casting a vote in the seat of a male legislator spread quickly
over the Internet. A picture of an electronic bulletin board at the Assembly
hall, displaying the result of Wednesday's votes, showed that Assembly Speaker
Kim Hyung-o had voted in favor of at least one of the revision bills although he
never made it to the Assembly hall.
The opposition says there were at least six illegitimate votes cast, enough to
nullify the passage of the Broadcast Law revision if recognized by the court.
Passage of the revision required a quorum of 148 legislators. If the six votes
are thrown out, that would mean only 147 lawmakers participated in the vote.
The GNP reacted quickly even before a formal accusation from the opposition was
made, claiming its lawmakers were the first to raise suspicions of illegal
voting. It charged that DP members seized GNP lawmakers' seats to cast "no"
votes.
"It really is a case where the guilty is accusing the innocent. The commotion
began because we protested against the DP side voting 'no' from GNP seats,"
ruling party secretary-general Chang Kwang-keun said in a radio interview.
GNP floor leader Ahn Sang-soo called for legal action against opposition
lawmakers and their aides for causing violence at the National Assembly.
"The turning of the National Assembly into a total mess and interfering with the
voting process was an attempt to defile the parliament and violate the
Constitution and must be punished," Ahn said at a meeting with the party
leadership.
Wednesday's ruckus and its wake closely resemble a case in 2005 when the then
main opposition GNP protested the unilateral passage of revisions to private
school laws with threats of resignation and accusations of illegal voting.
The revisions were upheld despite the political wrangling until the GNP and the
then ruling Uri Party, the predecessor of the DP, jointly rewrote the related
laws in July 2007.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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