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Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, released a statement Tuesday asking the North Korean government to guarantee reporters the right to freely cover the disastrous explosion that occurred in Ryongchon.
The international press freedom watchdog has its headquarters in Paris.
The RSF said they are shocked by the North Korean government's stance of not allowing reporters to cover the explosion. The organization also sent a letter to the North Korea mission in Geneva urging Pyongyang to permit reporters to freely cover the accident on the spot.
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A truck load full of relief goods sent from World Vision enters North Korea from Dandong, Tuesday.
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The press freedom watchdog criticized the North, saying Pyongyang has been tantalizingly providing information regarding the number of victims and the exact scale of the tragedy. International rescue organizations have to wait several days to reach the accident site and International Red Cross workers have also been grumbling that they have not been able to acquire enough information about the explosion, added the RSF.
According to the RSF, dozens of reporters from around the world have not been permitted to enter the accident scene at Ryongchon so they stay in the neighboring Chinese city of Dandung. The local media in Dandong haven’t even reported the explosion. Reporters have told RSF that it seems that local residents are afraid in speaking about the disaster.
For the second consecutive year the RSF ranked North Korea last in regards to freedom of the press, 139th in 2002 and 166th in 2003. The organization criticized the North in its report last year, saying that North Korean TV, radio broadcasts, and newspapers all praise North Korean leader Kim Jung-il and its army while denouncing hostile countries like South Korea, the U.S. and Japan.
(Eo Su-woong, jan10@chosun.com )
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