The Korea Newspaper Association stated on the 14th that it has requested the government to improve the transaction structure between media companies and portal site operators. The request aims to create an environment where quality news content can be produced and distributed.
The association reported that it submitted the 'New Government Newspaper Industry Activation Policy Tasks,' containing this information, to the Presidential Office, the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the same day.
In this policy task, the association emphasized that "newspapers are a critical element in establishing and maintaining a sound democratic society through opinion formation and information provision," and asserted that "the fundamental principle of media policy is to establish a foundation where quality news content can be smoothly produced and distributed." To this end, it claims that policies should be pursued with four goals: establishing a sustainable ecosystem for the newspaper industry, enhancing the public function of newspaper journalism, restoring the principles of democracy through expanding press freedom, and ensuring universal access to information.
The association pointed out that while portals induce traffic by exposing media companies' news content on their main screens and news tabs and create revenue based on this, the compensation provided to media companies for content usage is absurdly low.
Regarding portals, it observed that Naver and Kakao essentially maintain a monopoly, with only around 1,000 news partner media outlets, viewing it as a 'tilted playing field' and stating that "the added value of news information produced by media companies at high costs is being transferred to portals for a pittance, solidifying an inequitable and unfair transaction structure."
The arrangement of news displayed on Naver's main screen and news tab is directly tied to user accessibility and media company traffic; however, the 'algorithm' that serves as the basis for this arrangement is not disclosed. It argued that the operational principle should be revealed, and a minimum level of explainability and predictability should be secured.
The association also urged the government to establish regulations, stating that portals and artificial intelligence (AI) corporations are unlawfully utilizing news content for AI training, thus infringing on the copyrights of media companies. To address this, it proposed clarifying the legal standards for content collection and training by AI companies to protect the rights of media companies and establishing 'guidelines for the use of content for AI training.' It also requested the revision of copyright laws that classify 'current affairs reporting that merely conveys facts' as unprotected works, in order to build a new copyright protection legislative framework for news appropriate for the AI and digital media era.
The association further suggested expanding the media promotion fund, which is significantly smaller than other industry promotion funds such as the Cultural Arts Promotion Fund, the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Development Fund, and the Information and Communication Promotion Fund, and requested the abolition of excessive media regulation bills, including punitive damages.