Buddhists back religious networks in Korea

THE heads of three religious broadcasting networks have won backing from a senior Buddhist leader in their campaign to pressure the national assembly into pushing through a bill that will ensure state support for struggling small media organizations.

The presidents of the networks including the head of the (Catholic) Pyeonghwa Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) met Venerable Jaseung, chief executive of the Buddhist Jogye Order yesterday to garner Buddhist support.

Father John Oh Ji-yeong, president of the PBC, told him that the very survival of small religious networks depends on the bill being passed quickly through the national assembly.

“Religious networks face bankruptcy if the bill is not passed quickly,” Father Oh told him.

In 2008, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation’s monopoly over the allocation of advertising sales were “unconstitutional” but at the same time admitted “it is the state’s duty to support small media firms.”

Since then small organizations have been fighting a losing battle against bigger corporations for advertising revenue, prompting the smaller firms to demand the government introduce a bill that will guarantee them some advertising.

Report from ucanews.com