Christian Whiton, US Deputy Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, has addressed the Transatlantic Institute in Brussels to discuss the steps that can be taken to promote the human rights of the North Korean people. Amongst the things he discussed was broadcasting:
“Another pillar of our strategy is to take active steps to help empower the people of North Korea directly-for it is they who must ultimately bring about change.
Given the closed nature of North Korea, the most promising feasible method of doing this is through radio broadcasting. Veterans of repressive regimes in Eastern Europe and elsewhere have spoken of the positive effect that accurate information from the free world had on them. President Bush met with a North Korean defector who though his position in the army was able to listen to foreign broadcasts. It was this method of obtaining information that caused an awakening in him and led him to seek freedom. One consequence of the regime’s control of information and improbable message is that it takes but a glimpse of the outside world and reality to open eyes to the truth about North Korea.
“Radio broadcasts overseen by the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, such as the Korean services of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, have received significant increases in funding over the past couple of years. We have also sought to obtain resources for the growing number of independent groups that transmit information into North Korea. These ‘journalists with a cause’ are quite effective at communicating with North Koreans. Some of the broadcasters are themselves defectors from the North. Supporting independent efforts like this is a possible method by which European governments and institutions could contribute to North Korean human rights.”
(Source: US State Department/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)