"Every citizen has the right to enjoy the Paralympics" Representative Kim Ye-ji proposes the "Three Laws to Guarantee Sports View Rights for Persons with Disabilities" to expand broadcasting

Aug 28, 2024

Representative Kim Ye-ji (Power of the People) proposed a partial amendment to the 3 corporations 'Basic Sports Act'Sports Industry Promotion Act'National Sports Promotion Act' to guarantee the right to watch sports for the disabled.

The 3 Act on the Guarantee of Sports View Rights for the Disabled stipulates the obligation of the state and local governments to ensure that sports for the disabled are not discriminated against in broadcasting programming, and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism provides support for projects to guarantee the right to watch sports for the disabled. In addition, 'National Sports Promotion Act' added an activity to guarantee the right to watch sports for the disabled to the task of the Korea Sports Association, an organization in charge of projects and activities for the promotion of sports for the disabled.

Rep. Kim Ye-ji, a former medalist at the Winter Sports Festival for the Disabled and serious about disabled and non-disabled sports, began efforts to expand Paralympic broadcasts at the National Assembly early ahead of the opening of the Paris Paralympics after winning re-election. Through a National Assembly seminar in July, he pointed out the reality that many people are unable to share the meaning and inspiration of the Paralympics due to the poor broadcasting of the Paralympic Games despite the increased public interest in sports for the disabled, and sought ways to expand Paralympic broadcasts with experts from all walks of life. In-depth discussions continued on 'the social role of sports for the disabled and the importance of broadcasting'Universal viewing rights in the digital environment and 'plan to improve legislation to expand sports broadcasting for the disabled'. A plan was also actively proposed to include the Paralympic Games in the `Exercise of Public Interest' that guarantees the 'universal viewing rights' of the Korea Communications Commission notice. Universal viewing rights are the right of the public to watch sports games of great public interest, and the Korea Communications Commission is supposed to announce the event of public interest. More than 90% of the people should watch the Olympics, the World Cup, and the games that more than 75% should watch include the Asian Games, the WBC Baseball Classic, and the national team. The criteria for selecting the "sports competitions of great public interest" in the notice of the commission are ambiguousIt was pointed out that " According to the service report at the time of the revision of the Korea Communications Commission's notification in 2016, it was judged that there was a basis for discriminatory broadcasting on the publicity, performance of public duties, and gender of broadcasting when excluding broadcasting of the Adult Women's World Cup, but the same applies to sports for the disabled. The argument that the publicity of broadcasting, violation of public responsibility, and criticism of discrimination against the disabled will be inevitable has been bolstered.

Rep. Kim Ye-ji said, `Until now, Paralympic broadcasts have been scheduled for fewer broadcasts and unfavorable broadcast times compared to Olympic broadcasts, and this poor Paralympic broadcasting rate has not improved for years"We need special support and improvement of related systems to ensure that sports for the disabled are not discriminated against in broadcasting programming, and to guarantee the right to watch sports for the disabled" he explained the purpose of the legislation."

According to the data submitted by Representative Kim from the Korea Communications Commission, the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics were organized for 640.3 hours, while the Paralympics were only 95.6 hours. It was about 6 percent of the time for the Olympics. The 2021 Tokyo Olympics were organized for 845 hours and the Paralympics broadcast was 60.8 hours. The 2022 Beijing Olympics was organized for 576.2 hours, and the broadcast time of the Beijing Paralympics was only 32 hours.

In the case of the Paris Paralympics, there is no significant change in the terrestrial programming time of the three broadcasting companies other than the live broadcast of the opening ceremony. KBS, which is most active in broadcasting the Paralympics, has a total of 2,460 minutes and 41 hours of terrestrial broadcasting. The schedule is mainly from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 12:45 a.m. to 4:15 a.m. In the case of SBS, if you look at the 5th week of August, all the highlights of the Paris Paralympics are broadcasted at 12:30 a.m. on the 31st, other than the live broadcast of the opening ceremony. MBC will broadcast the Paris Paralympics for an hour from 10:45 a.m. on August 30, 1 a.m. on August 31, and 1:40 a.m. on September 1. As the platform has diversified, it seems that it is necessary to find a way through YouTube and its own site broadcasts.

Rep. Kim said, "Although the Paralympics has an important meaning in improving social awareness of the disabled and creating an inclusive society, the broadcasting rate of the Paralympics is still too low compared to the Olympics." We will do our best to pass this amendment so that the Olympics and Paralympics can be broadcast at an equal level" he said. Rep. Kim went on to say, `I wish the safety and good performance of 83 Korean disabled national team members at the Paris Paralympics, which will be held from today to September 8th` a message of support.

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