NORTH KOREA: North Korea intensifies press oppression

[American Patriot]

NORTH KOREA: North Korea intensifies press oppression
(executed for unauthorized phone call)
Asia Media ^ | 02/18/08 | Yoon Won-sup

NORTH KOREA: North Korea intensifies press oppression

Reporters Without Borders reports that North Korea is intensifying censorship of foreign press and of communication to those outside of the country

The Korea Times

Monday, February 18, 2008

By Yoon Won-sup

North Korea executed the director of one of its state-run companies last year for having made phone calls abroad without permission, according to an international association of journalists.

"North Korea is the world's most isolated country and the security forces are responsible for keeping it that way at all costs," Reporters Without Borders based in Paris said last week in its annual report covering 98 countries.

It shows a marked increase in executions for the offense of communicating with people outside the country, the reported added.

The group said the North has intensified its oppression of the press, particularly foreign press which target North Koreans as an audience.

Several foreign-based radio stations have increased their airtime while newspapers available online, in particular the Daily NK, have stepped up their coverage.

But Pyongyang responded to the challenges by resuming jamming independent and dissident radios from broadcasting to its people. They are Free North Korea Radio, Voice of America, Open Radio for North Korea, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Chosun.

The Korean Workers' Party fiercely condemned foreign news aimed at destabilizing the regime and the security forces were ordered to act to prevent foreign videos, publications, telephones and CDs from coming into the country.

The press association said North Korea is one of the world's least connected to the Internet. However, many exiled North Korean journalists contribute to the blogs.

Most of the Web sites are hosted in Japan or South Korea because the ".nk" domain name has yet to be launched.

Meanwhile, the reporters group revealed that North Korean journalists secretly launched a magazine "Rimjingang" in November last year with a Japanese news agency in order to cover unprecedented news about North Korea.

Around a dozen journalists received secret training in China before returning to their country and published the first edition including interviews with North Koreans and an analysis of the economic situation.

North Korean reporters are looking for subjects that reflect the lives of the people, their attitudes and aspirations, one of the project's founders was quoted as saying, adding that the magazine will be distributed secretly inside North Korea.

Reporters Without Borders campaigns for freedom of speech all over the world.

"The spinelessness of some Western countries and major international bodies is harming press freedom," Robert Menard, secretary-general of the organization, said in the report. "The lack of determination by democratic countries in defending the values they supposedly stand for is alarming."

[Brian Baldwin]

That's because we have a nation full of Secular Progressives that think North Korea is a Utopia we should all aspire towards.