New Chairman Choi Seong-joon of the Korea Communications 

Commission(KCC) delivers his inaugural speech at a ceremony 

on April 8 at an auditorium at KCC.(photo: KCC)

By Oh Chung-sook

Chairman Choi Seong-joon of the Korea Communications Comm-ission (KCC) said in his inaugural speech that he will try to improve the laws and regulations on broadcasting and communication media operations by removing unnecessary ones and those that hinders the sound operations of those businesses.

At the official inauguration ceremony on April 8 at the Gwacheon Government Building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, near Seoul, he said the media and communications regulations can be obstacles barring the further development of communication and broadcasting industries if they are left alone in this age where the further development of communication and broadcasting technologies take place constantly.

He said of most concern to the people is the cellular phone subsidy, adding that he will try to do every thing to remove the uncomfortable matters with coming up with appropriate measures to improve the Cellular phone Retail Law in a rational and diverse way.

The new chairman also noted that the protection of personal information is a very crucial point facing the KCC.

Choi also stressed that the KCC should be non-political and independent, not swayed by any political motives, and should make decisions through the total agreement among committee members so that they would not arouse the people’s suspicions on its actions. The KCC made its presentation at Cheong Wa Dae, the Presidential Mansion, in February to report to President Park Geun-hye its plan for 2014 , “The 2014 KCC Plan to Help Realize the Creative Economy.”

Former Chairman Lee Kyung-jae said, “The KCC will make 2014 the starting year to make another leap forward for the Korean-Wave and revitalize the broadcasting sector that is favored by the young, while making every effort in a full-fledged manner to implement policies benefiting the public through user protection, actively responding to illegal subsidies on mobile handsets, and the leakage of personal information.” 

To secure funds for a second Korean Wave, KBS license fees and the broadcast advertising institution will be raised and improved with focused efforts. 

The broadcasting market is now suffering shrinkage in advertising revenues due to the economic depression, the move toward internet advertising, and the mediocre license fees for KBS which has stayed unchanged for the past 33 years. As a result, it is encountering serious difficulties in management and weakening capability to produce content, losing steam to drive the Korean-Wave abroad. 

Faced with this reality, increased license fees will help stabilize the funding for public service broadcasting and strengthen other broadcasters’ content production capability, as many of the advertising orders for KBS are to be funneled to them. In addition, increased supports for EBS utilizing license fees will result in increased investment in educational content that can lift parents’ burden of paying for private education. 

In the meantime, ways to improve the uniform and rigid broadcast advertising institution will be prepared. 

More community media centers will open across the nation and be made the hub for broadcasting image production both in name and reality. 

Community media centers operate in Busan and Gwangju at the moment and greet 280,000 visitors every year. Soon, more centers will open in phases: in Daejeon, Incheon, and Gangwon in 2014 and in Seoul and Ulsan in 2015. 

In addition, to help nurture the ability to create broadcast image, the centers will link with elementary and secondary schools, universities, and private companies to provide education that is applicable and help expand the facilities and equipment that are necessary for production and offer them for free.