An investigative journalist returns from an undercover mission in North Korea—only to face her critics.
I lived in a locked compound under complete surveillance: Every room was bugged, every class recorded. I scribbled down conversations as they happened and buried my notes in a lesson plan. I wrote at night, erasing the copy from my laptop each time I signed off, saving it to USB sticks that I carried on my body at all times. I backed up my research on an SD card, which I hid in the room in different spots, always with the light off, in case there were cameras. After six months, I returned home with 400 pages of notes and began writing.
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The Seoul Western District Court on January 21 found a 73-year-old, South Korean journalist guilty of blogging positively about North Korea and handed him a one-year suspended prison sentence, according to news reports. The court acquitted the journalist, identified only by his surname Lee in the South Korean media to protect his privacy, on charges related to following Pyongyang’s official Twitter account.
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Photo: Jon Chol Jin
ijnet-english:
On Tuesday, Agence France Presse announced it will become one of a handful of media outlets to open a permanent bureau in North Korea, @guardian reported.
Currently, only the Associated Press, Japan’s Kyodo and China’s Xinhua have a foothold in Pyongyang, the insular nation’s capital city.
AFP’s deal with the Korean Central News Agency will allow the French news agency to produce original reporting, video and photo content within North Korea. To what extent this will be true is yet to be seen — @committeetoprotectjournalists lists North Korea as the second most heavily censored country in the world.
THE PLOT TO FREE NORTH KOREA WITH SMUGGLED EPISODES OF ‘FRIENDS’
A friend gave Kang two radio receivers. Kang paid a bribe to avoid registering one with police, and he learned how to disassemble its case and remove the filament that hardwired it to official regime frequencies. He and his closest confidants would huddle under a blanket—to muffle the sound from eavesdroppers—and listen to Voice of America, Christian stations, and the South’s Korean Broadcasting System. “At first I didn’t believe it,” he says. “Then I started to believe but felt guilty for listening. Eventually, I couldn’t stop.”
Under their blanket, they relearned all of North Korea’s history, including the fact that the North, not the South, had started the Korean War. Beginning in 1989, they followed the breakdown of Soviet Eastern Europe and the execution of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, a close friend of Kim Il-sung. They heard the music of Simon and Garfunkel and Michael Jackson, even learning the lyrics and softly singing along. “Listening to the radio gave us the words we needed to express our dissatisfaction,” Kang would later write. “Every program, each new discovery, helped us tear a little freer from the enveloping web of deception.”
Continue reading (story from wired)
Image credit: Joe Pugliese
South Korea has been hailed by many as a bastion for democracy and press freedom, especially in comparison to its twin to the north, which for years has been featured on the Committee to Protect Journalists' most censored list. However the recent stifling of critical voices in South Korea, including cases of arrests, deportation, and criminal defamation hearings in the past seven days, indicates a worrisome climate for press freedom and free expression.
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Photo: Shin Joon-Hee/Yonhap, via Associated Press
“This is not a matter of freedom of speech. Seth Rogen and his pals at Sony are the lowest of the low of U.S. propaganda on North Korea.”
– Tim Shorrock, investigative journalist covering U.S.-Korea relations, on the decision by Sony Pictures to indefinitely postpone the release of the comedy “The Interview” over threats against theaters and a hack of Sony corporate data. Watch his take on Democracy Now! today. (via democracynow)
“I needed to write the truth to keep myself sane. It was driving me crazy to keep denying reality and it was a relief to write what I wanted even if no one would ever read it. After I finished my first free poem I wept with happiness. I was ecstatic that I was able to write something that wasn’t ordered from above.”
–
Kim Jong Il’s personal poet laureate, Jang Jin Sung, on finally writing poetry that criticized the North Korean regime.
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(via globalpost)
fotojournalismus:
Pyongyang, North Korea — Daily Life (April 2014)
Photos by David Guttenfelder/AP
