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“Where is the BBC?”
The question of a BBC Korean-language service was back in the U.K. parliament last week when the House of Lords heard a motion to “take note of the role the BBC World Service and the British Council in promoting British values and interests worldwide.” While the speeches in the House of Lords weren’t focused on Korea,…
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South Korea steps up propaganda radio broadcasts
South Korea has stepped up propaganda radio broadcasts targeted at North Korea and attracted a fast response from the country. Voice of Freedom, one of three government-run radio stations that broadcasts to the north, launched a tentative shortwave service at the beginning of May, but the signal is already being aggressively blocked by the North Korean…
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Open Radio for North Korea goes off the air
Open Radio for North Korea, one of the handful of private radio stations that targets North Korea, has reportedly ended broadcasts to the country. The Seoul-based station is understood to have suspended shortwave broadcasting at the end of March after a grant from the U.S. government used to pay for the transmissions apparently ended. In…
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Voice of Korea mid-2014 schedule
North Korea’s external shortwave radio broadcaster, Voice of Korea, joins many of the world’s international broadcasters in switching to a summer frequency schedule on Sunday, March 30. Shortwave broadcasts change frequencies numerous times during the day to take advantage of atmospheric conditions that help their broadcasts can reach the intended targets. For this reason, it’s…
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DPRK organizations called out for censorship
Three of North Korea’s state security and censorship organizations have been called out by Reporters Without Borders in the organization’s latest ranking of “Enemies of the Internet.” The report was published on Wednesday, which RSF and Amnesty International have named world day against cyber censorship. The three organizations named by RSF are the Central Scientific and…
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BBC’s reasoning against a Korean service a ‘ruse,’ says group
A U.K.-based group that’s campaigning for the BBC to launch a Korean-language service says the broadcaster’s assertion that North Korean jamming would hamper reception is a “ruse.” The European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea (EAHRNK) says the BBC can’t prove whether a hypothetical Korean service would be jammed or not. Jamming is the deliberate…
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BBC decides against service for North Korea
The BBC World Service has decided not to launch a service aimed at North Korea, concluding any programming aimed at the country would face an uncertain audience and not be cost-effective. The decision was relayed in a letter from British Foreign Secretary William Hague to the U.K. Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. The BBC World Service is…
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Another push for BBC Korea
There’s a new push behind efforts to get the BBC World Service to launch a Korean-language service for North Korea. A group called The European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea (EAHRNK) has published a report making a case for such a service and just launched an online petition. In its report, EAHRNK argues that North Korean…
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“Mass intimidation” from DPRK media on Jang’s execution
North Korean state media’s coverage of the arrest, trial and subsequent execution of Jang Song Thaek was “tantamount to mass intimidation,” Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday. “Although only to be expected from one of the world’s worst dictatorships, such manipulation of news and information is disturbing,” the Paris-based group said in a statement. “The extensive…
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Voice of Korea on Jang Song Thaek
North Korea’s external broadcasting service, the Voice of Korea, ran three reports last week on the arrest and subsequent trial and execution of Jang Song Thaek. The reports, in English, are reproduced below. The first report ran on December 9 and covered the meeting of the political bureau of the central committee of the Worker’s…
