According to the Korean Film Directors Guild, on the afternoon of the 7th, in front of the Stanford Hotel in Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, where a 'meeting to collect opinions on video works' hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism was held, film directors held a meeting in front of the Stanford Hotel in Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, calling for 'fair compensation for video creators' and 'a world-class cultural attraction country that works with creators'. I held up a picket with a slogan written on it.
Directors held a guerrilla protest to protest the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's lukewarm attitude toward related legislation and to demand the establishment of specific policies to protect creators' rights.
It has been 25 years since the screen quota struggle in 1998 that Korean film directors took to the streets to solve problems in the film industry.
On August 31 last year, prior to the proposal to amend the Copyright Act proposed by Rep. Yoo Jeong-ju of the Democratic Party of Korea, about 200 directors attended the debate held at the National Assembly titled '10 Million Film Directors Finally Heading to the National Assembly: Discussing Fair Compensation', expressing public sentiment among directors. However, the street protest on this day was decided urgently because no other way could be found to protest the contents of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism meeting and the list of participants that were notified two days ago.
In response to this, a DGK official pointed out that he could not understand the intention of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to arbitrarily exclude from invitation the Broadcast Writers Association, Korea Independent Producers Association, and Broadcasting Performers Association, which are direct stakeholders and have expressed support for the bill.
In addition, he claimed that it was also unclear that there was not even a single prior consultation with the creator group that led the bill regarding the list of presenters related to the bill scheduled for four hours.
Nevertheless, rather than criticizing the intentions of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the film directors gathered at the scene demanded that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism perform a role worthy of the name of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism by moving away from its role as a passive judge of reviewing amendments and proposing a more active policy of protecting creators' copyrights.
To this end, video creators announced that they will continue the movement to protect creators' copyrights and the 'fair compensation' campaign in solidarity with creators in the fields of comics, webtoons, novels, and children's books, where the problem of a tilted playing field between creators and companies has recently been highlighted.
Choi Ji-ye, Ten Asia Reporter wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr