Censorship in North Korea

Censorship in North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) ranks among some of the most extreme in the world, with the government able to take strict control over communications. North Korea is routinely ranked at the bottom of Reporters Without Borders' annual Press Freedom Index, occupying the very last place in 2017.

All media outlets are strictly owned and controlled by the North Korean government. As such, every media in North Korea gets its news from the Korean Central News Agency. The media dedicates a large portion of its resources toward political propaganda and promoting the personality cult of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un. The government of Kim Jong-un still has absolute authority over and control of the press and information.

Radio or television sets, which can be bought in North Korea, are preset to receive only the government frequencies and sealed with a label to prevent tampering with the equipment. It is a serious criminal offence to manipulate the sets and receive radio or television broadcasts from outside North Korea. In a party campaign in 2003, the head of each party cell in neighborhoods and villages received instructions to verify the seals on all radio sets.

As North and South Korea traditionally have used different analog television systems (PAL and NTSC respectively), it has not been possible to view broadcasts across the border between the two countries without additional equipment.

According to the Daily NK, it is possible to broadcast news for North Korea through short-wave radio. Possessing a short-wave radio is against the law in North Korea, but the radios are allegedly confiscated and resold by corrupted agents of secret police.

"A Quiet Opening: North Koreans in a Changing Media Environment," a study commissioned by the U.S. State Department and conducted by InterMedia and released May 10, 2012, found that despite extremely strict regulations and draconian penalties, North Koreans, particularly the elites, have increasing access to news and other media outside the state-controlled media authorized by the government. While access to the internet is tightly controlled, radio and DVDs are common media accessed, and in border areas, television. Up to one in two urban households own a Notel (also called Notetel), a portable media player made in China which has been popular in North Korea since about 2005 and was legalized in 2014, and has been credited with facilitating the extension of the "Korean Wave" (Hallyu, the increase of the popularity of South Korean pop culture internationally) into North Korea.

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Wikipedia