Rep. Kim Ye-ji"So that all citizens can enjoy the Olympic and Paralympic Games together"...The heat of the seminar to expand the coverage of the Paralympics
Jul 13, 2024
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Rep. Kim Ye-ji and the Korea Sports Association for the Disabled held a media policy seminar to expand Paralympic broadcasting at 2 p.m. on the 12th at the 3rd seminar room of the National Assembly Hall in Yeouido, Seoul.
The Paris Paralympics will be held in Paris, France for 12 days from August 28 to September 8, two weeks after the closing of the Paris Olympics. South Korea will send 167 athletes (79 athletes and 88 executives). The competition's terrestrial broadcasting will be broadcast live and recorded on the KBS website, KBS Sports YouTube channel, Korea Sports Association TV and application (KBS+), while the online broadcast will be broadcast live and recorded on the three broadcasting companies (KBS, SBS, and MBC).
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The seminar was attended by Kim Ye-ji, the organizer, Seo Chun-ho, who has special affection for the Paralympics, Han Ji-ah and Chung Jin-wan, chairman of the Korea Sports Council for the Disabled, Hong Deok-ho, director of the Sports Division for the Disabled at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Secretary-General Yang Chung-yeon, Park Jong-chul, president of Icheon Sports Village, and Shin Eui-hyun, chairman of the athletes' committee, reflecting keen interest. Representative Kim Ye-ji said in his opening speech that "It is very meaningful to host the seminar ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics."The expansion of Paralympic broadcasting to be discussed here will be an important step toward promoting inclusivity and diversity in our society beyond just sports broadcasting." Rep. Kim then said, "The term 'Paralympics' is a combination of the prefix 'Paraplegia', which means paraplegia', and the ending of 'Olympics' It was first used at the Tokyo Paralympics in 1964, and the name 'Paraplegics' was officially recognized for the first time at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Seoul, South Korea, is also a symbolic city that has great significance for the Paralympic movement. Seoul was the first city to hold the Olympics and Paralympics side by side at the same venue in 1988. "Since then, the number of participants has increased and the number of participants has expanded, which means that the Paralympics is a side-by-side Olympic Games." "The Paralympics has an important meaning to improve social awareness of the disabled and to create an equal and inclusive society."," he stressed. Rep. Kim said, `It is regrettable that despite the growing public interest in sports for the disabled after the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympics, broadcasting is still focused on Olympic broadcasting, and many people are unable to share the meaning and inspiration of the Paralympics together.' `We hope that today's seminar will be a place to discuss more concrete and practical ways to expand Paralympic broadcasting.'
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Lee Jae-won, president of the Korean Special Sports Association (professor at Yongin University), made the first presentation under the theme of 「The Social Role of Sports for the Disabled and the Importance of Broadcasting」. Lee introduced Paralympic heroes after citing examples of non-disabled Olympians who have become Korea's top stars amid heated media attention, including Kim Yu-na and Park Tae-hwan. "For Paralympics, Chung Geum-jong, who won seven medals (gold 4, silver 1, bronze 1) in six Paralympics; Chung Jin-wan, who won the gold medal at the Sydney Paralympic Games with a new record that exceeds the record of a non-disabled shooter; Hong Seok-man, who made a two-time Paralympic gold medalist in wheelchair athletics; Shin Eui-hyun, the first Nordic ski gold medalist in the Winter Paralympic Games; and "Great Team Sports Para Ice Hockey, which won its first-ever bronze medal at the PyeongChang Paralympic Games." It was recommended that the "sports competition of great public interest" stipulated in the announcement of the Korea Communications Commission as the subject of universal viewing rights be revised to the "Olympic Games of great public interest" and the "Olympic Games of great public interest" should be revised to "Olympic Games of great public interest" and "Olympic Paralympics of great Eastern Hemisphere". Chairman Lee said "If you look at the YouTube channel, there are 94 KBS videos for the Tokyo Paralympics held in 2021. It is too weak compared to the 10,000 articles in the Tokyo Olympics. They say there's no ratings for the Paralympics, but it's airing late at night. Will there be ratings. We have to live-stream live on prime time to see how much viewership we get, how much advertisement we get, and how much we get." "We need the role of media in various genres such as entertainment, documentaries, and news, as well as real-time broadcasts," he argued. Chairman Lee proposed to the Korean Sports Association for the Disabled (KPC) that "complementary maintenance of related laws and regulations, strengthening media-related organizations and committees, and ways for KPC-TV to be activated like Channel 4 in the UK." "It is also necessary to produce various contents related to sports for the disabled and to produce and propose a manual for broadcasting mega events such as the Paralympics." For public broadcasters, it proposed "peak-time broadcasts, live broadcasts of major games, official promotional videos production and distribution, documentary production related to sports for the disabled, and content production and utilization of entertainment programs".
Shim Mi-sun, a professor at Soonchunhyang University, then began the presentation with an explanation of 'Universal viewing rights, anyone's right to watch broadcasts without any discrimination'. After pointing to changes in the personalized media environment as data, Professor Shim said "OTT platform is growing 28%." The viewing habit has been reorganized from real-time terrestrial to non-real-time OTT, which leads to an increase in communication costs. "There are fewer sports that can be viewed free of charge. Interest in universal viewing rights is growing in the competition over sports broadcasting rights. In Articles 24 and 76 of the Broadcasting Act, universal viewing rights stipulate the right of the general public to watch broadcasts on other major national events such as 'sports competitions of great public interest', and public interest events that should have a ratio of 90% or more of visible households were introduced as the East Summer Olympics, FIFA World Cup, and Asian and East Asian Games where the men's soccer team participates in more than 75% of public interest events. He also carefully pointed out the status of sports broadcasts for the disabled. Professor Shim said "Disabled sports are less visible in the media. It is a big problem that people with disabilities do not appear in the media. "The 2020 Tokyo Paralympics broadcast is one-tenth that of the Olympics. KBS played 2045 minutes (Olympics 25,945 minutes), MBC 950 minutes (Olympics 13,320 minutes), and SBS 610 minutes (Olympics undisclosed)" cited the data. "The match of Shin Eui-hyun, a promising gold medalist at the Pyeongchang Paralympics, was not broadcasted", he said, sharing a clearly comparable overseas case. "In the case of the Tokyo Paralympics, Japan's NHK released broadcasts and special programs a month before the Paralympics, and computer graphic characters broadcast and comment on the Paralympic site in the morning and afternoon, and artificial intelligence chatbots were operated to provide subtitles and voice commentary for some events and answer Paralympic-related questions. Channel 4 in the UK made up more than 70% of the disabled among broadcasting broadcasters. More than 300 hours of TV broadcasting and 1,000 hours of broadcasting on Paralympic sites. The U.S. also broadcasted 1,200 hours on an online streaming platform, including 200 hours of TV channels", he introduced. He then cited the example of the British Broadcasting Act, which guaranteed universal viewing rights for the Paralympics. "The United Kingdom has granted universal viewing rights to events that have special sympathy from all citizens, contribute to national unity and can be considered a national event, and to events involving teams representing the country as national or international events that many viewers are interested in. Following free terrestrial broadcasting, these games were open to anyone, including the Olympics and Paralympics. "We are missing the Paralympics, the Paralympics, and the Asian Games. In the case of the Paralympics, there is not much public interest, but it is necessary to improve the system to expand universal viewing rights to improve awareness of the disabled and to integrate communities and society" gave an opinion.
Subsequently, Dr. Kang Nam-ki of the Institute for Legislative Policy continued his presentation under the theme of 「Legal Improvement Plan to Expand Sports Broadcasting for the Disabled」. The "Basic Sports Act should be revised with provisions to prevent discrimination between sports for the disabled and sports broadcasting for the disabled" and the "Plan to establish additional special support regulations to guarantee sports viewing rights" in the Sports Industry Promotion Act revised by Representative Kim Ye-ji last year. In addition, if the 22nd National Assembly proposes a bill to support sports for the disabled, which was not enacted during the 21st National Assembly, it is necessary to systematically revise individual provisions to revitalize sports for the disabled"Since Article 34 of the National Sports Promotion Act does not include "right to watch sports for the disabled", it is also necessary to revise the regulations that guarantee the right to watch sports for the disabled and the right to watch sports" According to the service report at the time of the revision of the notification of the Korea Communications Commission in 2016, it was judged that there was a basis for discriminatory broadcasting on the publicity, performance of public responsibilities, and gender when excluding broadcasting of the Adult Women's World Cup. The same goes for disabled sports. He argued that the publicity of broadcasting, violation of public responsibility, and criticism of discrimination against the disabled will be inevitable.
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The panel discussion was also heated well over the scheduled time. With Professor Yoon Seok-min of Yeungnam University as the chair, Hong Deok-ho, director of the Department of Sports for the Disabled at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kwak Jin-hee, director of the Broadcasting Infrastructure Division of the Korea Communications Commission, Choi Hyung-joon, professor of Dankook University, Choi Sun-ho, team leader of the Korea Blind Association, and Hong Seok-man, PhD, participated. We discussed the need to expand Paralympic broadcasts that we felt at our respective sites.
Hong Deok-ho, director of the Sports Department for the Disabled at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said "Ura is now moving toward an integrated society. Broadcasting should also go in the direction of going together without discrimination against the disabled in the process of going to an integrated society" expressed his position. "I hope today's seminar doesn't end with a discussion, but results come out." After recalling the history that the poor situation of sports for the disabled was known through the media during the 2002 Busan Asian and Pacific Paralympic Games, the Korean Sports Council for the Disabled under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism was created. "We need the voices of the disabled to expand the broadcast of the Paralympics." There should also be a lot of public opinion gathering places like today. The government will propose a new paradigm for Paralympic sports policy after the Paralympics."
Kwak Jin-hee, Director of Broadcasting Infrastructure Division of the Korea Communications Commission, said, `Universal viewing rights are the right of the public to watch sports games that are of great public interest, and the Korea Communications Commission is supposed to announce the 'Exercise of Public Interest'. More than 90% of the people should watch the Olympics, the World Cup, and more than 75% of the games are Asian Games, WBC Baseball Classic, and national teams. To revise the notice, it must go through the process of collecting viewers' opinions. In the 2022 Public Perception Survey, the Paralympics were included in the survey and a survey was conducted, and additional selection-related surveys found that 'the necessity is low'." "Stakeholders' positions and opinions were also collected. The Association of Disabled Persons 'If the broadcast is expanded, public interest will increase. Although the broadcaster expressed the opinion that 'priority expansion is necessary', if the Paralympics is designated as an event of public interest, the obligation to broadcast in real-time will be borne. When broadcasting in real-time, it is difficult to organize entertainment shows or news with high ratings, and there is an excessive management burden at a time when terrestrial broadcasters' sales are falling. There was a request for careful consideration", he explained. "The three terrestrial broadcasters also proposed a plan to provide broadcasting rights to broadcasters who purchase Paralympic broadcasting rights on the condition of broadcasting for a certain period of time rather than revising the notice."The committee will review the support policy from various angles to expand the broadcasting of the Paralympics. I will discuss with the three terrestrial broadcasters to ensure more coverage of the Paris Paralympics" reported his position.
Professor Choi Hyung-joon of Dankook University shared his experience of working as a support staff for Premier League clubs and an analyst for para ice hockey at the PyeongChang Paralympics while studying in the UK. "When we went to Canada and the U.S., there were many requests for autographs from fans who recognized outstanding players among our players, but there were few requests for autographs in Korea."Canada broadcasts para ice hockey weekly on state television. This is the power of the media." Professor Shim Mi-sun said that the event of national interest is an event that all citizens sympathize with and contributes to national unity. Considering that 15% of the total population is disabled, less than 1% of athletes with disabilities will be disabled, but the public consensus is that they have the power to exceed 90%." "Players are motivated the moment their game goes out on live television. He also has a strong desire for medals. The expansion of broadcasting will be an opportunity to develop sports for the disabled to the fullest. He urged improvement as soon as possible.
Choi Sun-ho, head of the Korea Blind Association, said, `Recently, people with disabilities such as 'Wiracle' and 'One Shot Hansol' have been introducing the daily lives of people with disabilities in a pleasant way, failing, and making mistakes, and looking at disabilities. The wider the contact surface is, the wider the understanding becomes.', emphasizing the importance of the media and its attitude toward disability. When Representative Kim Ye-ji legislated the right to watch sports for the disabled last year, he went to the ballpark himself and reported a lot of live broadcasts on the field, and through this, he learned that non-disabled people also enjoy baseball. The on-site broadcasting, which disappeared earlier this year, will resume from today. I wish more people would join me in finding rights to people around me, such as the disabled and families of the disabled." "The committee mentioned the problem of 'recognition' as the reason for not changing the notice, but I think it's a vicious cycle. The reality is that it is not recognized and not interested because it is not exposed to TV and media. If the contact surface widens and the positive effect increases, interest will also increase.'
『Athene-Beijing Wheelchair Athletics Legend" Dr. Hong Seok-man of Hankook University stated, "After the 2004 Athens Paralympics gold medal, broadcasts and articles poured in. People recognized me and asked me to take pictures, and they served me at a restaurant. He testified of the effects of the media he experienced firsthand, saying, "I saw disabled people flow into sports for the disabled." Before the opening of the 2012 London Paralympics, the British public was not very interested. Broadcasting and media played a huge role." "If the Paralympic broadcast is expanded, retired athletes will have more opportunities in their retirement lives as they provide commentary and vividly convey the contents of the Paralympic Games." He then aspired to see sports for the disabled from the perspective of sports. "It's too bad that the Paralympics, the Asian Games for the Disabled are just seen as programs about the disabled. The preparation process for a major tournament is a sports program, but it is regrettable that it is organized on disabled broadcasts and is seen like that. We hope that sports for the disabled will coexist as part of sports without boundaries."
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