The Internet Election News Deliberation Commission (hereinafter referred to as the IENDC) under the National Election Commission held the 17^th Commission Meeting on November 13, 2012 and gave ‘warnings’ and ‘cautions’ to the 11 Internet media that had delivered unfair news coverage regarding the 18^th Presidential Election.

The IENDC issued a warning to the Newstown (newstown.co.kr) and the Voice of Seoul (amn.kr) that had violated Article 8 of the ‘Public Official Election Act’. The two Internet media had delivered election-campaign type of news in favor of a specific candidate while continuously publishing columns that slandered and denigrated the opposing candidate. The newsWAVE (newswave.kr) and the Internet Journal (injournal.net) that had reprinted the corresponding articles also received a warning.

Furthermore, the Daily Journal that had covered the news denigrating a specific political party /candidate based on excessively subjective feelings and bias, along with the Independent (independent.co.kr), Newsfinder (newsfinder.co.kr) and Bignews (bignews.co.kr) that had delivered the articles concerned, received a ‘caution’ for the same offence. In addition, the Jeolla.com (jeolla.com) as well as the Kyeongnam Internet News (경남인터넷뉴스.kr) that had reprinted the remarks and statements by a specific political party/candidate or the Election Campaign Headquarter, briefing details and website materials were issued a ‘caution’ for the breach of the same Act.

Meanwhile, in regard to the 18^th Presidential Election, the IENDC gave a ‘warning’ to the MK Business News (mk.co.kr) that had constantly sensationalized the title of articles to badly affect a specific candidate through the selection of article titles exaggerated by a lack of objectivity in pursuit of hits.

The Internet media giving a suggestive and sensational title to articles just to increase the number of hits on the articles might have a good/bad effect on a specific candidate. The IENDC has therefore requested the Internet media to select objective titles of articles especially when delivering election news so as not to mislead voters.

According to the IENDC, it has taken action on 312 cases of unfair news coverage with regard to the 18^th Presidential Election as of November 14, 2012. That includes the issue of 4 orders to post warning notices on the websites of the corresponding Internet media, 10 warnings, 262 cautions and 36 requests for fair news coverage.