FTC to enforce press regulation

The Fair Trade Commission will undertake investigations into violations of the recently adopted press decree in case newspapers do not abide by their voluntary self-regulation beginning from July, when the edict goes into force. The commission said that it would clamp down on provincial papers that use pressure, as they have been doing, to solicit advertising from construction firms and small industries.

The commission said that it in early May it would start looking into suspected illegitimate inter-subsidiary transactions of eight conglomerates including Doosan, Hyosung, Hanaro Telecom, Shinsegae and Oriental Chemical Industries.

A probe of the four biggest business groups would begin later in the year, commission chairman Lee Nam-Kee told reporters on Monday.

According to him, telephone tip-offs would be accepted by the commission`s Seoul office and its four regional offices in and after July. Any cases reported would be handed over to the Newspaper Association, which is supposed to act on them in accordance with the provisions for self-regulation. He pointed out that some local newspapers had printed advertisements arbitrarily and then later demanded payment for them. He said that inquiries into the eight conglomerates should start in May to rule out any favorable treatment of those big businesses. Earlier he had said that such investigations would not be carried out in the first half of the year in view of their difficulties amid an economic slowdown.

Choi Young-Hae moneychoi@donga.com