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[HCDX] North Korea Intensifies Press Oppression'
North Korea Intensifies Press Oppression'
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/02/116_19157.html
By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
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.''
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