On the 5th and 12th TV Chosun’s’The Taste of Wife’ will appear on the 5th and 12th, respectively.
Is there any problem with the election of these candidates? The Central Election Commission announced the ban on candidates from 90 days before the election on the 5th (the 7th). It is a content that prohibits the appearance of publications and advertisements in newspapers and broadcasts. This is a measure to prevent candidates from unilaterally promoting campaigns other than those prescribed for elections.
However, the National Election Commission did not mention the case of’broadcast appearance’ other than’broadcast advertisement’. An official from the Central Election Commission explained, “The Public Official Election Act does not have a separate regulation for broadcasting appearances, and the Korea Communications Standards Commission has formed an election broadcasting review committee to deliberate on broadcasters.”
As a result of the confirmation, the Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee, which deliberates on broadcasting, has a ban on broadcasting. The special rules for election broadcasting deliberation stipulate that’broadcasting shall not appear in programs other than broadcasting, reporting and debate broadcasting according to the provisions of the Election Act from 90 days before the election to the election day’. In fact, MBC’Study Is Money?’, which featured lawyer Jang Jin-young, who ran as a candidate for the Future Integration Party in the 21st general election, was sanctioned.
However, the Korea Communications Standards Commission, which is in charge of deliberation on election broadcasts, is in the position that the’re-by-election’ is an exception. An official from the Korea Communications Commission said, “There is a clause prohibiting appearances before 90 days, but in the case of by-election, the Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee is formed 60 days before the election. Election broadcast deliberation can only be broadcast after the organization is formed, so broadcasts 60 days before the election are deliberated.” Consistently, it was applied differently from the NEC, which stipulated the prohibition of individual promotional activities 90 days before.
In other words, in the case of a re-election, the two politicians’ appearance of’the taste of the wife’ is not a problem because it is applied as an exception to’prohibition of appearances before 60 days’ and appearances from the broadcast in February are prohibited.
However, since election broadcast deliberation also regulates re-broadcasting, re-broadcasting of these politicians within 60 days of the election will result in sanctions. During the 2016 general election, there is a case where the broadcaster featuring candidate Jin Seon-mi appeared in the rerun of the EBS documentary’Evolution of Marriage’, which aired in the past during the 2016 general election.
Political circles and some media have raised issues even before the election period if a candidate appears on an entertainment program. This is because if a specific party or candidate is highlighted on the broadcast, it can be seen as’unfair’ in the position of the other party or candidate.
Mayor Park Won-soon appeared on MBC’s’Radio Star’ in January 2018 when the election for the mayor of Seoul was 5 months left, and it became controversial. Through commentary, the Liberal Korean Party urged, “MBC turned public broadcasting into an election campaign medium,” and urged, “Since six months before the election, it is an election campaign period, the National Election Commission should investigate.
At the time, the Chosun Ilbo said, “Will the current mayor before the election go to terrestrial entertainment?” He published an article and said, “(Radio Star) politicians have rarely appeared, so the appearance of Mayor Park became a fire of controversy.” When the two politicians’ appearances in’Wife’s Taste’ were confirmed, the Chosun Ilbo published public relations articles such as “Minister Park Young-seon and former lawmaker Na Gyeong-won, “The Taste of Wife”, “Na Kyung-won,’The reason I decided to appear in the taste of my wife. It is also a contrast to what was written.
There is dispute over the appropriateness of the provisions for the restriction on the appearance of candidates. A former Election Broadcasting Deliberation Committee official said, “It is important to equalize the frequency of exposure for each candidate for election deliberation. It is true that there is a problem that causes imbalance if a specific candidate is exposed to programs other than news or current events.” . On the other hand, there are some views that broadcasters see that it is an’excessive regulation’ that restricts appearances according to genre only on broadcasting in a situation where candidates can appear on new media contents such as YouTube.
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