North Korean government
has strict censorship on all mass media and deviation from the official
government is not tolerated.
Article 53 of the North Korean Constitution allows freedom
of speech, press, etc. but, only when that speech is supporting the government
or KWP objectives. All citizens are prohibited from listening to foreign
broadcasting otherwise, they are severely punished. No external media is
allowed free access to North Korea, keeping information both in and out. All of
the mass media sources within North Korea are major carriers for information
dissemination and political propaganda. Radio and TV’s are first set to a specific
government channel and can only receive official programming that can’t receive
any other stations unless designated. After buying a radio you have to have it
checked and registered with the police. The government is even in control of artistic
and academic circles or media.
In the mid 1993’s North Korea had only eleven TV stations,
two dozen AM stations, ten FM stations and eight domestic shortwave stations.
Out of that small out of radio stations compared to the U.S. thousands North
Korea only has two main central stations. Newspapers are only published by two
main companies and citizens are provided with a newspaper depending upon their
occupation (government, army, teacher, railway worker). From 2004 to 2008 the
use of mobile phones was banned in the whole country. Nowadays mobile phones
are given 3G speed with no internet access and the government is starting to
get strict again about phone policies with the potential to ban them again. The
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) is responsible for gathering and
disseminating news throughout the country.
Restrictions on the
internet in North Korea go above and beyond extreme.
The internet in North Korea or rather lack of internet has
no broadband network. A fake internet that is government controlled through “mosquito
internet” which only allows the bare essentials in and out of the system is
called Kwangmyong which some people are allowed to access from home or internet
cafes. On this “internet” whenever Kim Jong Un’s name appears it is slightly
bigger than the rest of the text in the article, not considerably but
enough to notice.
All computers in North Korea run on an operating system
called Red Star that was in part made by the late Kim Jong Il himself and
displays the year 101 rather than 2012. The year 101 represents how many years
the Jong family has been the leader of North Korea. Within the whole country
only elites, some academics and some scientists receive internet access and
even fewer (about 13 families that are all related to the Jong’s) receive full
unlimited and uncensored access. Journalists in North Korea who write articles
for the “internet” have to be especially careful because for something as
simple as a typo will have them sent to a revolutionisation camp.
Government censorship
and restrictions all tie into how the country is run as a whole.
North Korea is run on a totalitarian, family dictatorship
that controls the country and its people in all aspects. All property and
things manufactured are owned by the state or cooperative organizations.
Personal property only exits for socialist distribution that benefits the state
and society expenses. Also stated in their Constitution is that any and all
property is guaranteed by law as a right of inheritance. Article 70 of the
Constitution states that citizens are assigned to their occupations based on their
abilities.
North Korean economy is one of the poorest and least developed
countries despite being so strict. Each citizen is required to belong to at
least one political organization. The people also cannot move whenever or to
wherever they please but must apply for the right to and be given permission.
The same works for weekend vacations and holidays that must go through the
police and approved, otherwise you must wait for your vacation quota for the
year. All countries relay on a different means of government and rules, while
some are obviously more strict than others North Korea has definitely earned
its rightful spot as the tenth strictest and second most censored country in
the world.
Amber introduces her portfolio post nicely in the intro paragraph, explaining that North Korea is highly censored and people are not fortunate enough to use the mass media like we do in this country. Her headline was a very clear sentence; however, it could have used more detail including through what mechanisms does north korea apply strict media censorship. Amber uses subheads such as "North Korean government has strict censorship on all mass media and deviation from the official government is not tolerated" very well to keep her paper clean-cut and divided as well as introduce what specifics will be discussed in this next section. Amber's post thoroughly discusses the limitations on the internet accessibility in North Korea. She also details how this restriction matches how the country is run.
ReplyDeleteThe graphics used are also placed and positioned well to keep the post visually appealing as well as aid in the main points of the post.
Watch out for a few grammatical errors and try to avoid using contractions and incomplete sentences like "it checked and ."
I would consider adding personal opinion to this piece- perhaps whether you think it is acceptable or not to have these restrictions? In addition, I suggest detailing and providing links to articles on whether this censorship affects the people in the country.
I think the headline is very explanatory; it explains what exactly the article will be covering, and gave me information before I even read the article. The headline could perhaps be rephrased to “North Korea applies strict media censorship to all mass media sources that go against their own Constitution”. The wording of the headline right now is slightly confusing; at first I thought you were trying to say that North Korea went against its own constitution by censoring the media.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you set your introduction up by appealing to your readers emotions by asking them to imagine themselves in a situation similar to North Korea. It added a personal touch to your article and gave it something distinct, not just the usual facts and figures.
I really liked the second two links in your article, which named the strictest and most censored countries in the world. I thought this, along with your picture “Freedom of the Press Worldwide in 2008” illustrated exactly how censored North Korea is in comparison to other countries. I was very interested by the fact that the US was reported to be in a ‘satisfactory situation’ and not a ‘good situation’, because I thought that we were very well off in terms of free speech.
A suggestion though; make sure you read through you article after you have finished writing it, because there are quite a bit of grammatical errors and missing commas.
An article that might be helpful to your post: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/04/north-koreas-digital-underground/308414/
This article discusses the groups that are rising up in North Korea that are beginning to smuggle information out of China and smuggle information in. There are also groups practicing ‘real’ and ‘honest’ journalism inside of the country, causing major impacts on how we now view North Korea.
In her ePortfolio, Amber has a clear structure, with a good introduction, body paragraphs, a conclusion, clear subheadings and well placed pictures. Her explanatory headline is informative, but confusing and could be misinterpreted easily. “North Korea applies strict media censorship to all mass media sources going against their own Constitution” could be interpreted as either North Korea being hypocritical going against their own constitution by censoring people, or that North Korea censors those opposing their constitution. Other than a few typos her post is organized and includes links as evidence to whatever point she is trying to make or share.
ReplyDeleteHer main points in her post are the strictness of North Korea’s censorship in the media and how that reflects the governments approach to life outside of the media as well. She discusses the censorship in North Korea by sharing many facts on how the government approaches censoring the public and what actions they use to punish and encourage the ideal information to share.
To improve her post I would add a couple more pictures or a video. I would also add a personal opinion on the matter, agreeing or disagreeing with what is being done, and also add to the conversation by talking about what is being done now to counter the censorship, either by citizens of the country or activists outside of it. A good source she could have linked to in order to talk about conflict with censorship in North Korea would be this link on Anonymus trying to hack North Korea. (http://thediplomat.com/the-editor/2013/06/22/anonymous-we-have-stolen-north-korean-military-documents/)