this pissed me off!!!

[star1206]

Why the hell is it every freaking time they show clips on the news about North Korea or Cuba or some other communist country they use stock footage from like 30 years ago?!?!?! i mean its not like these places are completely cut off from the world! and its not like they dont allow any reporters in at all! i mean if they can get footage of shootings

Comments

[queensugar]

You actually can't; and yes, those places are about as cut off from the world as anything could possibly be.

It's virtually impossible for North Americans to get into North Korea; North American journalists are even less welcome.

Even for foreigners from other countries, it simply cannot be done without an invitation from the government. The few journalists that are allowed in are only allowed to move about the country with an escort, and that escort monitors them closely to ensure they only get images of what the government wants the world to see... namely, boring shit and statues of Kim Jong'Il and stuff.

Beyond that, operating without the sanction of the government (for a foreigner who manages to sneak in, or for a native North Korean) would be extraordinarily dangerous. Too dangerous to make it remotely worth while. The government is most certainly willing and able to find anyone gathering information or images and releasing them to external media; the results would be extremely unpleasant.

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[queensugar]

Just as an addendum...

The thing to remember is that in warzones like Afghanistan and Iraq, while journalists are definitely under threat and living in a very risky environment, they're not totally unwelcome, nor is it physically impossible to move about those areas. One just does so at one's own risk.

Even the Taliban in Afghanistan are somewhat media-savvy; they want to get a message out to the world media.

However, in North Korea you have a situation that's more or less unique in the world (save Cuba, but who really cares about that): you have a government that absolutely does not want anything like general press in the country, but even moreso you have a government that has absolute control over its own country and what happens inside of it.

In Afghanistan, in Iraq, you don't have that. In most places, the government (whether bad or good) does not have the ability to absolutely and totally control what gets out. But in North Korea, you do.