By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter


UNESCO’s member nations voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a convention to protect the diversity of cultural expressions and local cultures from ever-growing globalization, strengthening grounds for Korea’s maintaining its so-called ``screen quota’’ system.

In the 33rd UNESCO General Conference in Paris, attended by the 154 member states, 148 voted for the draft, two objected and four abstained.

As expected, the United States and Israel opposed the pact, titled ``The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.’’ Australia was one of the four countries that did not vote.

The convention authorizes each member country to take ``all appropriate measures’’ to protect and preserve cultural contents from serious threat.

Korea’s cultural organizations and supporters of the screen quota system are welcoming the adoption of the UNESCO pact, expecting that it may put an end to controversy on maintenance of the rule.

``Although we are not sure if the pact can be actually influential in dealing with trade pressures, it is true that the international society has provided an important ground for us to protect local cultural contents and the screen quota system. I expect the pact will be ratified by the National Assembly by early next year at the latest,’’ said Yang Ki-hwan, a secretary general of the Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images.

``It will also pave the way for an increasing number of policies aimed at protecting the cultural rights of the minority,’’ he added.

The screen quota system, aimed at protecting the domestic film industry from big-budget Hollywood movies, requires local cinemas to fill 40 percent of their screening with locally produced movies. However, the U.S. has been demanding South Korea cut the quota to 20 percent as it seeks the wider distribution of Hollywood films.

In Paris last week, about 150 artists from around the world, including Korea’s top actress Moon So-ri, gathered to publicly show their support for the UNESCO convention.

South Korea voted for the UNESCO convention as it is under trade pressure from the U.S. to ease a safeguard on its screen quota system as important conditions for a bilateral investment treaty with Washington D.C.

Calling the convention ``deeply flawed,’’ the United States argued the convention could be used to erect trade barriers against cultural exports such as films and pop music as well as indirectly limit free speech.

Although the U.S. delegation proposed 28 amendments to the draft, the member states rejected all of them.

The convention, which takes precedence over similar previous pacts, will be in effect once more than 30 countries ratify the pact. The limit of the convention is the fact that countries who do not ratify the convention will not be bound to it.

michelle@koreatimes.co.kr