Isn’t it surprising that there are about 17,000 “media outlets” registered with the authorities in this country, and the number increases by an average of three a day? According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, those start-ups are mostly Internet-based newspapers, which can legally exist with a minimum of three employees each.

With the rise of mobile communications, the media environment in general is turning from bad to worse. The overall picture is further complicated with growing harms from “pseudo-journalism” that does anything to make revenues, including extortion.

Now a storm is approaching Korea’s media world, in the form of the Law on the Prevention of Illicit Soliciting and Bribery, commonly called the Kim Young-ran Act. 

This new law, which was enacted with overwhelming support at the National Assembly last March, with 226 out of 247 votes cast in favor, will take effect in September 2016 after a year and a half preparatory period. It is a bad law or at least a flawed one for no other reason than that media employees were included unreasonably in the category of its jurisdiction which basically targeted public servants. Now, working journalists may be forced to change their traditional ways of contacting news sources.

The Kwanhun Journal, the quarterly magazine published by the Kwanhun Club, a fraternity of senior journalists, featured a review of the Kim Young-ran Act in its 2015 summer edition with articles contributed by media representatives and academia.

“We have asked for it,” said Kim Sung-hoo, acting managing editor of the Journal of the Journalists Association of Korea. “In the name of tradition, reporters ate and drank with news sources, went on overseas tours with corporate sponsorship and received gifts from the ‘beat’ on Chuseok …”

Now, no more news gathering through socializing.

The cut-off line for punishment (maximum fine of 30 million won or up to three years in jail) is set at 1 million won on a single occasion or 3 million won per annum from the same person. Whether or not anything was done in return changes nothing. Even if less than 1 million won changed hands, both the giver and receiver are to be punished if a business favor was provided or promised.

There is an immunity clause for gifts, meals and cash donations of small values. Exempting conditions can be translated into “(when offered for) smooth business performance, social intercourse, observance of custom and show of compassion.”

Standards for such tolerance will be set by a presidential decree. The existing code of conduct for public officials allows 30,000 won in the maximum cost of a meal, 50,000 won for a cash gift at weddings or funerals and 100,000 won for a floral wreath, etc. New rates will be made to reflect price rises.

Lawmakers included journalists in the targets of the law in an impulsive manner. The original bill drafted by Kim Young-ran while she was head of the Anti-Corruption Commission had only state-run broadcasters KBS and EBS as media organizations to fall under its jurisdiction. During deliberation at the Assembly Political Affairs Committee, an opposition NPAD member argued that “all organizations that wield significant influence in our society” should be ruled. Another member concurred: “Yes, the ‘jongpyeon’ cable stations (with news programs), Internet newspapers, and all those media outlets!” according to a transcript.

Thus, journalists have been put into the “hall of influence” in Korean society along with people with administrative, legislative, and judiciary powers, sharing their inclination of corruptibility. The media, whose primary mission it is to watch possible wrongdoings by powerful people, have been categorized as potential criminals that need to be watched by the nation’s law enforcement apparatuses.

From September 2016, we can imagine an investigator from the Seoul Prosecutors’ Office asking a newspaper reporter to reveal where he had dinner with a certain businessman or a politician the previous night and how much it cost. If the reporter refuses to cooperate, the agent can directly check with the restaurant to continue probing a suspected violation of the Kim Young-ran Act. A joke already circulates about the “KYR set menu” priced 29,900 won per person at restaurants often used for media relations events.

Without doubt, the Kim Young-ran Act has elements challenging the constitutional freedom of the press and violating the right of equality as journalists of all professions in our society were picked up for its jurisdiction. The Korean Bar Association and a journalists’ body have filed applications to the Constitutional Court to examine the viability of the new law, which they say could be abused for the suppression of the media.

Tradition dies hard, yet the culture of treatment and entertainment in our society has definitely been in the process of being phased out in various areas. Since the 1980s, for example, Blue House-accredited reporters have paid for their flights, meals and hotel lodging when they covered presidential overseas tours, whereas all their expenses were borne by the press office until the 70s. Changes have taken place for the cleaner media practices and environment over the past decades. Inclusion of the media in the KYR Act was a legislative excess.

Still, ranking officials or corporate executives continue to invite journalists to golf or drinking parties to maintain intimacy with them which could prove valuable in the event they encounter public relations problems. The ties are mutually exploited as some media people could also use such connections in obtaining advertisements for their papers or win official favors for a third party. The new law must help to end the long-standing collusiveness and unhealthy camaraderie between the pen and power.

The media world should strive henceforth to win social consensus for the revision of the law to extricate itself from the shameful application of the anti-corruption statute. At the same time, the legitimate media should make collective efforts to deter the mushrooming of the pseudo-journalism in the cyberspace and local communities that prey on small businesses and weak individuals. Major Internet portals need to do their part in clearing their platforms of online garbage.

Only when the established media do their job properly, can they differentiate themselves from the hazardous Internet news outlets, numbering over 6,000 as of this week. The KYR Act can be a blessing in disguise if it spurs the nation’s media circles toward a higher level of integrity.

Kim Myong-sik, a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald, has spent 50 years in journalism. ― Ed.