The Democratic Party of Korea decided on the 4th to prioritize the broadcasting law among the 'three broadcasting laws' to be brought before the National Assembly's plenary session that day. The amendment to Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union Act (known as the 'yellow envelope law'), which had been highly requested by the progressive camp and labor sector, along with the amendment to commercial law introducing a concentrated voting system, will be passed in the August extraordinary National Assembly.
Democratic Party of Korea leader Jeong Cheong-rae noted during a parliamentary meeting that "Legislation for people's livelihood reforms that our party has prepared for a long time will be brought up in today's plenary session," adding, "Although there have been some ups and downs, the broadcasting law related to media reform, which is one of the three reform areas - prosecutorial, media, and judicial reforms - will be introduced first and is expected to be processed."
The People Power Party has applied for a filibuster on each of the five contentious bills, including the three broadcasting laws and the yellow envelope law, as the Democratic Party is set to push through these five legislative items. A filibuster can be terminated if more than two-thirds of the sitting members vote in favor after a 24-hour period has elapsed since the closure request. However, as the extraordinary National Assembly session is set to conclude on the 5th of July, the Democratic Party can only handle one legislative item during this session.
As such, the Democratic Party discussed the yellow envelope law and the three broadcasting laws among the prioritization of the handling legislation but ultimately decided to handle the three broadcasting laws first. It appears that the push for prioritizing the three broadcasting laws was strengthened by Jeong Cheong-rae's emphasis on a speedy 'prosecutorial, media, and judicial reform.'
Democratic Party of Korea spokesperson Baek Seung-ah met with reporters after a meeting and said, "The party leader decided to handle the broadcasting law first because of his commitment to media reform."
The broadcasting law is expected to be passed around 4 p.m. on the 5th after being presented today and the filibuster by the People Power Party concludes.
The Democratic Party plans to pass the remaining four contentious bills, including the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Act, the Korean Educational Broadcasting System Act, the amendments to Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union Act, and the Commercial Act, to the August extraordinary National Assembly.
Therefore, the procedure for the contentious bills of 'bill presentation → filibuster → closure → voting' is expected to continue until the August National Assembly. Although the Democratic Party has already convened the extraordinary National Assembly starting on the 6th, the actual plenary session is expected to resume around the 21st of this month, taking the summer vacation schedule into consideration.
The three broadcasting laws, namely the broadcasting law, the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Act, and the Korean Educational Broadcasting System Act amendments, focus on restructuring the governance of public broadcasters such as KBS, MBC, and EBS. The amendments include increasing the number of KBS directors from the current 11 to 15, and increasing the number of directors at the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Association (MBC) and EBS from 9 to 13.
Among these, the quota for director recommendations from the National Assembly negotiation group is 6 for KBS, and 5 each for the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Association and EBS. Based on the current number of seats, the Democratic Party may recommend 4 directors, while the People Power Party can recommend 2 directors on the KBS board. The recommendation entities have been expanded to include academia and civic groups. The media association and lawyer organizations will distribute the number of public broadcasting directors among 4 people. Additionally, the system for a candidate recommendation committee for the president of public broadcasters and specialized news channels will be established, composed of more than 100 members, allowing the committee to recommend 'three or fewer' candidates for the presidency. The committee's recommended candidates will be elected by the board through a special majority system (requiring more than two-thirds approval) and runoff voting.