The National Assembly's audit of the culture sector is well under way. Regrettably, much of this year's audit has strayed from its stated purpose of scrutinizing government affairs. That was especially true at the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, which oversees the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Heritage Service. With about a week left, one hopes the remaining sessions are conducted properly.
According to the National Assembly, the committee's remit is to review bills and petitions belonging to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Heritage Service, along with other duties set by law, including the parliamentary audit and investigations. The audit itself, again by the Assembly's own definition, is meant to grasp more accurately the state of government operations as a whole, to obtain the data and information needed for legislative activity and budget review, and further, through oversight and criticism of government affairs, to uncover and correct what has gone wrong, so that the Assembly can efficiently carry out the legislative, budget-review and executive-oversight functions the Constitution assigns to it.
In other words, the audit is exactly what its name says: an examination of the national policies of the ministries a committee oversees. The controversy erupted over demands to summon witnesses and persons of interest concerning the film "Assassin(s)," and over the question of high-rise buildings in front of Jongmyo Shrine.
The opposition People Power Party demanded witnesses related to "Assassin(s)" as soon as the audit began. On the 7th, the committee's first day, Rep. Cho Eun-hee, the opposition's floor manager on the committee, said in her opening remarks that neither the Gwangju uprising nor the Sewol ferry disaster should be distorted lightly, and asked why the death of former first lady Yuk Young-soo should be treated differently. Just as freedom of creative work must be respected, she said, it is hard to imagine the pain bereaved families suffer from distortions of history. She called for the committee to designate as witnesses or persons of interest the chief executive of Hive Media Corp, the film's production company, along with the director, the screenwriter and officials from Megabox. If the committee does not take up such matters, Cho added, then where in the Assembly should they be taken up?
Rep. Kim Seok-ki of the People Power Party said the same day that he had seen the film and that much in it did not match the facts, arguing that the director should be summoned in person and questioned about his intentions in making it. Rep. Kim Seung-soo of the People Power Party said many members of the public were curious about how the film was made and about what he called malicious editing, yet not a single witness had been designated.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea and another opposition party, the Rebuilding Korea Party, opposed designating the witnesses, saying freedom of creative work must be protected. Politics and the administration cannot touch creative freedom, the ruling party said; if there is a problem, civil or criminal action can be taken over the film.
Opposition lawmakers pressed questions about "Assassin(s)" throughout the audit to the culture minister and to the Korean Film Council, the Korea Media Rating Board and the Korea Creative Content Agency. Other major issues were all but buried.
Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young told the audit on the 7th that in a country where freedom of expression is guaranteed, the government does not involve itself at all in the content of creative work. To criticism that the ministry had failed to block the production of "Assassin(s)," he shot back, asking whether he was being told to conduct prior censorship. Rep. Lee Jae-jung of the Democratic Party, who chairs the committee, said that bringing creators before the Assembly to vet the content of a film was something the chair could not permit even if the two parties' floor managers agreed to it.
The audit briefly broke down. At the session on the 14th, People Power Party lawmakers walked out en masse in protest after a motion to summon the director of "Assassin(s)" and others as witnesses was not adopted.
Outside the hearing room, film industry figures voiced concern about a possible infringement of creative freedom. The Solidarity of Korean Film Professionals held a news conference in Haeundae District, Busan, on the 8th, arguing that the dispute must not expand beyond assessment of the film into a tool of political warfare.
The more the controversy intensifies, the worse it is likely to be for the film market. It works like being told not to think about an elephant: the frame itself takes hold, and the image is the first thing that comes to mind. One figure in the industry said the market was already weak, and that the more words like "censorship" and "distortion" are broadcast, the more the will to create is bound to shrink.
In the end, "Assassin(s)" slipped to second place at the box office on the 14th, in the middle of the audit, overtaken by a Japanese animated film.
The push by some opposition lawmakers to allow high-rise buildings in front of Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul invites a similar reading. People Power Party lawmakers pressed the Korea Heritage Service on why it was opposing development permits for high-rises while demanding what they called an unnecessary heritage impact assessment. At the agency's audit session on the 8th, Rep. Cho Eun-hee said that because the Sewoon District 4 project had been stalled for years, 839.3 billion won in project costs and 74.1 billion won in accumulated interest had piled up, leaving residents to bear 47 million won a day. Why, she asked, were they being held back? Showing a rendering of the Sewoon district development drawn up by the Seoul city government, she said public contributions would increase twelvefold.
Figures in the cultural sector say the argument was aimed at the wrong address. At a minimum, they say, members of this committee should be debating how best to preserve Jongmyo. Framing the matter as a case of a shrine blocking a large construction project is, in cultural circles at least, a stretch. The Korea Heritage Service's job is to preserve and make good use of Jongmyo, which is both a national and a World Heritage site.
On the 15th, some opposition members of the committee visited Jongmyo as part of an on-site inspection for the audit and argued that the opposition to high-rises in front of the shrine by the Korea Heritage Service under the Lee Jae-myung administration had been opposition for its own sake. At the same hour, the committee's ruling party members traveled to Busan to visit the Busan International Film Festival. A long-standing tradition of ruling and opposition members conducting site visits together was broken.
Each party has its own base of support. It is understandable, then, that lawmakers feel they must keep an eye on those supporters. Even so, should they not know what their own role is? In an audit of culture, culture should come first.
[From Choi Soo-moon's Capital of Culture] A look at cultural phenomena unfolding in Korea, a global capital of culture, and an exploration of the path it must take to become one in the fullest sense.