Political Banners Proliferate Across Suwon, Damaging Urban Aesthetics

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Political banners are proliferating at prime locations throughout Suwon, including intersections, damaging the city's aesthetics.

Particularly, these political banners have become rampant around the Lunar New Year holidays, serving as eyesores and compounding inconvenience for pedestrians.

They are mostly indiscriminately installed between street trees and between streetlights and traffic signals at intersections with high foot traffic.

The proliferating political banners are largely from politicians seeking to raise their profiles ahead of next year's general election.

They are also being indiscriminately posted by those expected to run in the March agricultural cooperative union director elections, as well as by city and local council members.

The messages vary widely, ranging from party promotions and criticism of the current government, to self-promoting policy announcements, disparagement of opponents, and Lunar New Year greetings. This further aggravates the frustration of citizens experiencing pedestrian inconvenience.

However, there is no way to remove these banners, creating a larger problem and encouraging further proliferation.

This is because the enforcement ordinance for political banner crackdowns was revised on December 10 of last year.

Under the current Outdoor Advertising Act and its enforcement ordinance, posting is possible anywhere at any time if certain requirements are met.

As a result, banners posted outside designated posting boards are excluded from illegal outdoor advertising removal targets.

If the party name, party contact information, installation company contact information, and posting period are displayed, enforcement is also exempted.

Therefore, local governments managing outdoor advertisements have no way to enforce removal unless the statutory posting period of 15 days has passed.

Citizens expressed indignation, saying, 'While general banners face strong enforcement including forced removal, political banners are given immunity—this is special treatment,' and argued that 'laws tailored to politicians' preferences should be corrected as they violate principles of fairness and equity.'