Seoul Media Bills Pass After Brawl

The National Assembly passed three bills to modernize South Korea's media industry, including allowing companies to own both broadcast and print properties. The voting, which took place Wednesday amid fistfights and shouting matches among lawmakers, capped months of acrimony over the measures. The bills -- which must be signed by President Lee Myung-bak to become law -- set the stage for the government to privatize its media properties, which include three of the nation's four broadcast television networks, the Yonhap news agency and 24-hour cable news channel. The government hasn't announced sale plans. Opponents of the measures focused particularly on the bill that permits media property cross-ownership, a practice that is common elsewhere but that may reshape political influence in South Korea because journalists here are openly partisan in their reporting and newspapers and TV networks are politically divided. Media reform has dominated South Korea's politics for more than a year and spawned clashes among lawmakers during debates in December and February. On Wednesday, lawmakers from minority parties blocked doors and brawled on the floor of the assembly hall to prevent the parliamentary leader from introducing the bills.