Media bills trigger scuffles in S.Korea parliament

Scores of legislators scuffled inside South Korea's parliament Wednesday as the conservative ruling party pushed through long-delayed bills easing curbs on media ownership.

South Korean legislators vote in parliament to endorse Han Seung-Soo as new prime minister in Seoul, 2008. Scores of legislators scuffled inside South Korea's parliament as the conservative ruling party pushed through long-delayed bills easing curbs on media ownership.

Dozens of people were injured and one opposition lawmaker was taken to hospital, Yonhap news agency said.

The nationally televised stand-off began after Speaker Kim Hyong-O called a vote on the bills, after months of negotiations between the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) failed.

GNP lawmakers occupied the speaker's podium as colleagues tried to push away opposition lawmakers who had barricaded the entrance to the main chamber with sofas and chairs.

The bills were passed later despite the opposition attempts to physically block the vote.

Voting finally got under way after dozens of GNP lawmakers, helped by aides, pushed their way into the hall to join their colleagues surrounding the podium.

A female DP lawmaker was knocked to the floor while some angry opposition legislators beat GNP members or tried to jump over their heads in an attempt to reach the podium.

Outside parliament, police stopped about 200 media union activists who wanted to protest.

The bills ease ownership barriers between print media and TV networks. One of them allows businesses including newspapers to buy up to 10 percent of a terrestrial TV channel, and up to 30 percent of a cable channel.

"We have endured to the best of our capacity. Now it's time to act," said GNP leader Park Hee-Tae.

President Lee Myung-Bak wants sweeping deregulation of the media industry in what he says is a move to create new jobs and enhance competitiveness.

The opposition accuses Lee of paving the way for conservative newspapers and large businesses to control TV networks and restrict the free flow of information.

The ruling party controls 169 seats in the 299-seat parliament after a sweeping general election victory in April last year. The DP holds 84 seats.

Last December some opposition members used a chisel and hammers to break down a door as tempers flared over a bid to ratify a US free trade pact. Dozens of security guards were injured in clashes the following month.

In a March survey, South Koreans picked parliament as the country's least law-abiding organisation.

In a bizarre twist, Stalinist North Korea sided with opposition lawmakers and media union activists.

The union is on strike "in protest against the Lee Myung-Bak group of traitors' scheme to railroad the evil bill on media," Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.