In the wake of the scandal involving now-impeached South Korean president Park Geun-hye and her minister of culture Choi Sun-sil over the blacklisting of artists, South Korea’s Ministry of Culture has vowed to call for new legislation to protect artists from discrimination and political oppression, the Korea Herald reports. Following the arrest of Choi Sun-sil, the ministry has rolled out a series of meaures, starting with the creation of an independent rights committee for artists, in charge of monitoring violations of artists’ rights. It will also seek to guarantee the autonomy of Arts Council Korea and Korean Film Council – which account for the majority of state funding of artists – and aim to see through several projects deemed to have been aborted due to such discrimination. However, the ministry’s officials have stressed that such policies are still in a drafting phase, and have yet to be finalised.
The wider corruption investigation of Park’s administration is still ongoing, and has been shaking the country’s political and business elite, with repercussions in the artworld (the recent resignation of the director of Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art last week has also been linked to another scandal prompted by the investigation).
13 March 2017
