[Editorial] Party propaganda placards everywhere

The array of banners carrying slander and condemnation against rival political parties has become a stressful eyesore. Few neighborhoods in the country are exempt from the proxy contest on the streets as if an election campaign takes place all year round. Since the passage of a revision to the Outdoors Advertising Control Act by the Democratic Party (DP) lawmakers last December, political parties are free to hang banners anywhere for 15 days instead of certain locations permitted by local governments.

The revision was aimed to “guarantee regular political party activities.” But what banners carry are mostly slander against the rivaling party. “A crime must be punished,” read one banner from the People Power Party (PPP), referring to DP head Lee Jae-myung indicted for many corruption charges. In reaction, another banner from the DP says, “Crimes done don’t get punished,” referring to a former PPP lawmaker who was found not-guilty in the first trial for allegedly arranging for his son to receive a fat severance pay from a suspicious real estate developer and first lady Kim Kun-hee, whose case of alleged stock price manipulation was dropped by the prosecution. The inflammatory exchanges on the streets can be frightening and have bad influence on kids.

Some DP lawmakers even refused to accept their party’s order to hang a banner likening President Yoon Suk Yeol to an infamous national traitor who sold off the country to Japan by signing the 1910 annexation treaty.

Municipal governments are flooded with complaints about the banners. Drivers complain of some banners getting in the way of traffic signals and shopkeepers for masking their shop signs. The government of Seoul is considering to restrict it to one banner per district for each party.

But since local government actions do not have binding force, there is no way to block political parties from hanging their propaganda placards. Banner flooding will only escalate from August when a voter also can individually put up a banner 180 days ahead of an election.

Political parties must stop with the distasteful and accident-prone banner competition. They are contaminating the streets with their never-ending quarrels to exacerbate fatigue for the public. A banner usually costs 100,000 won ($75) to make. The eyesore comes at the expense of tax funds or public donations.

If political parties cannot refrain from their wasteful street battle on their own, regulations must be revised to make them put up banners in designated places after getting permission from local governments in the same way as the general public. Legislators must revise the law again if political parties cannot constrain themselves in adding to the agony for the people.