Amid the suspicion of manipulating paid copies of newspapers as a social agenda, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced the results of a corporate office inspection for the ABC Association, a subsidiary certification body. The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism released a press release on the 16th, saying, “Through an office prosecutor and interview with the newspaper office, we have confirmed a significant difference between the oil price rate and the sincerity rate announced by the ABC Association and the actual oil price rate and sincerity rate.” ‘Foretold.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, “According to the results of the interviews with the newspaper offices and the results of the analysis of the data obtained, there are variations by office, but the average oil price rate (ratio of paid copies to the number of publications) of newspapers is 62.99%, and the average sincerity rate is 55.37%.” The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism added, “Even if we take into account the limitations of office work, it is a meaningful result to estimate the insolvency of the subsidiary construction process and to derive system improvements.” The Chosun Ilbo certified by the ABC Association last year was 95.94%, and the Dong-A Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo were 79.19% and 78.21%, respectively.
As a result of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism directly conducting field surveys in 12 newspapers, the Chosun Ilbo’s sincerity rate was 49.89%~86.73% (55.36%). Previously, as a result of the on-site survey by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Media Today reported that the number of copies reported by the Chosun Ilbo’s sample offices was 157730, and the actual number of copies was 78541, and the average sincerity rate was 49.8%. The sincerity rate is the ratio of the paid copies reported by the newspaper to the association with the paid copies certified by the construction staff through due diligence.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism said, “(Association) selected sample stations that have an important influence on the outcome of subsidiary construction and assigned construction personnel, and one specific manager performed it alone without external observation and records.” In addition, he said, “As a result of the interview with the director of the branch office, before construction (7 days before), an employee of the newspaper company visits the sample office and directly corrects (changes) and manages the evidence of paid copies.” “The incidental work is going on,” he pointed out.
In addition, he said, “We also confirmed a case in which the newspaper applied for amendment of the’same data’ without additional evidence, even though it was’data that was confirmed to be unacceptable for paid copies’ as paid copies.” The ABC Association’s certification committee also pointed out that “from 2015 to the present, there have been no cases of decision to hold certification, and it has been formally operated.”
In response to this point, the ABC Association said,’We do not know whether the newspaper company is prepared in advance, and only authenticate with data on the site according to regulations and procedures, and because there is no compulsory investigation authority, it is impossible to reveal the authenticity of the data. The newspaper staff is in the position that the purpose is to mediate and cooperate in conflict between the branch office and construction workers.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, “There is no evidence to know whether the construction officials have checked the proof of paid copies of the branch office, and to what extent, there is no evidence. We confirmed the opaque handling of work in the entire subsidiary construction process, leading to the branch office construction (due inspection) → corrected data recognition and certification committee operation, and recommended measures to improve the system to enhance transparency and objectivity in this regard.”
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism introduced an integrated ABC system that investigates the number of copies of paper newspapers and the volume of online newspapers (traffic) in consideration of the changing media environment from paper newspapers to online and mobile, along with recommendations for measures to improve the association’s operating method, such as improving the structure of the board of directors. It recommended various measures to fundamentally improve the ABC subsidiary work based on reliability, objectivity, and fairness, such as reviewing plans for the use of the association’s funds, which are currently being frozen, if necessary.”
Specifically, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism △Setting guidelines for selection of sample stations and methods of verifying fairness △Adjustment of the timing of notification of the sample stations (currently 7 days prior notification → 1 to 3 days prior notification) △ Construction workers randomly assigned by a specific manager It was recommended to improve the method and strengthen the competency of construction workers.
Most of all, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism diagnosed that “the influence of media companies has been excessive due to the composition of executives centered on newspaper companies and the share of membership fees.” 3) recommended improvement.” Regarding Chairman Seong-joon Lee, the head of the institution was warned for “inappropriate operation of the association as the chairman, such as continuing conflict due to the improper operation of the association and the loss of reliability of the incidental construction system”.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism announced that “if the recommendations for the office inspection are not implemented by June 30, we will actively take additional measures, such as suspending the policy use of the ABC subsidiary.”
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, “We plan to actively check the progress of system improvement, such as by visiting sample offices in the future even during the regular construction process.” Considering the limited number of samples and the amount of data, an additional joint investigation team will be formed and on-site inspection will be carried out by the end of June.” The policy is to increase the objectivity and reliability of the survey on incidental construction by significantly increasing the number of newspaper stations subject to on-site inspection to the level of 30 to 50.
The office prosecution began in November of last year when an internal petition was received from the ABC Association that revealed the suspicion of incidental manipulation. As the results of the subsidiary work were used for the unit price of government advertisements, it was inevitable to confirm the facts and take measures to improve the facts of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Culture, which is the supervisory organization of the ABC Association.
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