The Internet has caused a tremendous change in the media environment in various aspects of production, delivery, and consumption of news. In particular, the Internet media is becoming an effective medium for the public to participate in politics while several elections are held and it has a great influence on all fields.

The Internet media offers a variety of political information to voters, activates a debate culture, draws people''s attention to election and encourages voters to participate in politics. It is also used as a space for exchanging opinions on civil society. In spite of advantages of the Internet media, it also causes various problems. For example, unfair election news coverage may do damage to political parties and candidates or distort voters'' perspectives of the information delivered.

With the influence of the Internet media on society and politics being greater, people have started feeling keenly the necessity of impartial internet election news. Thus, through the revision of the Public Official Election Act on Mar. 12, 2004, the Internet Election News Deliberation Commission was established to relieve the damages caused by distorted election news coverage on political parties and candidates and encourage fair election news coverage by the Internet media.

According to the Article 8-5 Paragraph (2) of the Public official Election Act, the Internet Election News Deliberation Commission is composed of less than 11 commissioners endorsed by the political parties that hold a negotiation body in the National Assembly, the Korea Communications Standards Commission, the Press Arbitration Commission, the National Election Commission, academic and legal circles, the Internet media associations and civic groups.

According to the Article 8-5 Paragraph (8) of the Public official Election Act, the Internet Election News Deliberation Commission operates a qualified deliberation team, a deliberation management team and deliberation support team to handle deliberation duties.

A political party or a candidate may file an objection with the Internet News Deliberation Commission against the election news delivered by the Internet media whose coverage is believed to be unfair within 10 days after noticing the news. Once an objection is lodged, the Internet News Deliberation Commission deliberates without delay whether the election news that an objection has been lodged against is fair or not. If it is admitted that the election news is not fair, the Internet News Deliberation Commission shall request a correction on the news report to minimize damage.

-In case a political party or a candidate has put in a request in writing for correction report to the corresponding Internet media within 10 days after noticing the election news and an agreement has not been reached, the corresponding political party or the candidate concerned may request a correction to the Internet News Deliberation Commission.

The Internet News Deliberation Commission deliberates the request, makes a decision on the requirement for news coverage and orders the corresponding Internet media to correct the news.

-In accordance with Article 8-6 of the Public Official Election Act, the Internet News Deliberation Commission investigates if the election news posted on the websites of Internet media is impartial. Once the election news covered by the Internet media is found to have damaged fairness, the Internet News Deliberation Commission takes actions that include ordering the corresponding Internet media to post a correction report (posting of a warning & caution notices/requests for cooperation regarding the fair news coverage).

Improvement of Relevant Laws and Systems

The Internet News Deliberation Commission strives to achieve the development of the Internet media and provide a right direction to fair news coverage.

The Internet News Deliberation Commission undertakes various researches to fairly deliberate an objection lodged against unfair election news coverage and a request for a correction of news.

The Internet News Deliberation Commission conducts various researches to establish deliberation criteria that reflect the features of the Internet media and publishes White Papers and reports on deliberation outcomes.

The Internet Election News Deliberation Commission carries out researches to improve the relevant laws and systems for fair and efficient deliberation into election news coverage by the Internet media.

- A remarkably large quantity of articles or photos of a specific political party or candidate
- Interviews conducted in favor of a specific candidate to highlight his/her accomplishments and positive images
- Delivery of the contents of interviews which may have a positive/negative effect on a specific candidate during the introduction of electoral atmosphere in specific areas
- Promotional news articles that cover a specific candidate''s career, political activities, pledges, political views, etc.
- Dialogues or debates broadcast intentionally to highlight or disparage a specific candidate prior to an election

- News report on a candidate containing the information irrelevant to the candidate or unidentified information
- Conclusive news report on arguments raised by the opposing candidate or political party without verification

- News report that exaggerates, minimizes or conceals important facts which may affect voters'' judgment
- Conclusive news articles that predicts the election result without any reasonable grounds to mislead voters'' judgment

- News report including results of public opinion polls from unknown sources that may have a positive/negative impact on a specific candidate
- News report on results of public opinion polls interpreted arbitrarily for or against a specific candidate
- News report on unscientific survey results without representative samples
- News report on survey results during the prohibition period for releasing survey results