KCNA Stands Up for Press Freedom!

North Korea, which was ranked 172nd out of 173 countries on last year’s survey of world press freedom and which is currently holding two journalists hostage, has lent its moral authority to the oppressed purveyors of the fraudulent P.D. Diary in South Korea, which inspired last year’s violent mad cow demonstrations.

The Citizens Federation for Democratic Media of south Korea issued a statement on March 27 denouncing the present “government” and the ruling party for their undisguised moves to put broadcasting services and other media under their control.

The statement accused the Lee “government” of letting a large number of his confidants hold responsible posts at Yonhap TV News and other media organizations and their related institutions. It deplored that the media persons of conscience are fired for chiding the “government” policies and even thrown behind bars. [KCNA]

Yes, North Korea is criticizing the South Korean “government” (those scare quotes are a nice touch) for putting government-owned media under government control. I hope this helps you understand why blogging about Korea can be so compulsive for anyone with a well developed sense of irony.

This is one of those moments when I could mount my soapbox and demand of some fictitious Korean presidential advisor — whom I imagine in my more delusional moments to be reading this — whether this is the freedom I fought for from the harshness of a rather badly furnished, mold-scented legal office in Pyongytaek. Or, I could be truthful.

Truthfully, I have no sympathy for these defendants, who, while working on the government’s dime, recklessly (at best) provoked weeks of violent mass hysteria, hysteria that included the ransacking of media that didn’t echo the bleating herd. The report in question stood at the intersection of tabloid journalism and political disinformation, both of which would be legal but scorned in a more mature society. If there were evidence that a foreign power put PD Diary’s producers up to it, I’d see the basis for a prosecution. Because I see no such evidence, I think the South Korean government is taking a pernicious path. (Another pernicious idea: government subsidized news media in general.) And with my duty to disapprove of this duly discharged, this is one of those Many Bad Things in the world that I just can’t get terribly stirred up about.