<Anchor> The



Media Arbitration Act, which stipulates punitive compensation up to five times the amount of damages for media reports, was handled by the Democratic Party led by the second lieutenant of the National Assembly.

Academics and media groups have criticized the bill as having a lot of ambiguous regulations throughout, which will greatly reduce the ability to monitor power.



This content was covered by reporter Han Se-hyeon.



<Reporter>



The core of the amendment to the Media Arbitration Act, which was passed by the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, is the provision of punitive damages.



If there has been any infringement of property, moral rights, or mental suffering due to false or manipulation reports caused by intentional or gross negligence by the media, etc.




[Yun Ho-jung / Democratic Party floor leader: The media reform to relieve the people's damage caused by fake news and to create a fair media ecosystem has finally taken the first step.]



Guidance guidelines for intentional or gross negligence, which are the premise, are indicated.



This includes repeated or repeated false reports, misrepresenting article titles, and distorting article content with visual materials such as photos and illustrations.



It contains words that can be arbitrarily interpreted as to how far to continue or to be viewed as distortion.



Nevertheless, it was stipulated that it was presumed to be intentional or gross negligence, but several court officials explained that this provision shifts the burden of proof to the press.



If political power and large corporations claim that the verification and critical reporting are intentional or gross negligence, the point is that the media must prove it, not the party who claimed it.



There are concerns that coverage of power-type corruption such as the Park Geun-hye National Nongdan incident could be blocked at the source.



[Ahn Dong-geun/Professor of Media Communication at Hanyang University: If people in power abuse this law, we can predict the side effects that can block investigative reports or additional reports by the media… .]



Five media organizations, including the Korea Journalists Association, also criticized it as "an anti-democratic law that curtails freedom of the press under the Constitution and blocks reports of criticism of politicians and the government" and said "We will actively block it through constitutional complaints, etc."



(Video coverage: Park Jin-ho, video editing: Kim Jin-won)