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Last Updated: Mar 27, 2009 - 11:49:10 AM |
NORTH KOREA: Petition for the unconditional release of two American journalists
Reporters Without Borders and the International Women's Media
Foundation (http://www.iwmf.org/) have jointly launched a petition for
the immediate and unconditional release of reporters Laura Ling and
Euna Lee, who have now been held in North Korea for an entire week.
“Laura Ling and Euna Lee were taken into custody on the Chinese-North
Korean border while reporting on the fate of North Korean refugees,
and, more specifically, on the practice of trafficking in women.
Pyongyang authorities have no reason to hold them or to accuse them of
illegal activities. They should be freed at once,” the two
organizations urged.
Sign the petition on our website http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30691
On March 27, 2009, Reporters Without Borders and the International
Women's Media Foundation launched a petition on behalf of Laura Ling
and Euna Lee. The two reporters are currently being held in Pyongyang
by the authorities, who have accused them of being spies who entered
North Korea illegally. The North Korean government has allegedly
affirmed that they were being well-treated, though independent sources
have been unable to confirm it.
According to information gathered by Reporters Without Borders in South
Korea and on the Chinese border, the two journalists, their cameraman,
Mitch Koss, and their Chinese guide, were on a reporting assignment for
media outlet Current TV. At this moment, it is impossible to say
whether they actually crossed the border and were heading for North
Korea.
During a meeting with a Reporters Without Borders delegation, former
South Korean president Kim Dae Jung stated on March 26 that he was
certain “North Korean authorities would soon release the two U.S.
journalists.”
Mitch Koss, Current TV’s American cameraman, was allowed to leave China
after Chinese authorities had held him for several days. He was with
Euna Lee and Laura Ling at the time of their arrest on March 17, but
managed to escape from the North Korean border guards. Their guide—a
Chinese citizen of North Korean origin, is apparently still being held
by the Chinese police.
The two women were supposedly transferred to Pyongyang on March 18.
Vincent Brossel
Asia-Pacific Desk
Reporters Without Borders
33 1 44 83 84 70
[email protected]
© Copyright 2009 by Boxun News
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