News Releases

RTNDA Condemns Guilty Verdict in Trial of U.S. Journalists in North Korea

As word of a conviction and sentence of 12 years hard labor for American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee reached the rest of the world, RTNDA is repeating its call for North Korean officials to release both women.  The sentences announced Monday North Korean time are the latest in a series of anti-free press moves the Pyongyang government has made since the  journalists were seized March 17 while reporting on refugee issues at the border in China.

North Korean officials should recognize that RTNDA members and other journalists across the world see the conviction of these journalists as an affront to media freedom and basic human rights.  A reporting team covering important international issues is working for people across the globe and deserves the freedom to pursue the story free of local government interference. 

This trial and sentence underscore the North Korean government’s backward position in the area of openness and acting in the public interest.  “I’m shocked that this case has gone so far and that these two American journalists now face the possibility of hard labor in a North Korean prison,” said RTNDA Chairman Stacey Woelfel.  “Officials involved in this case should realize how wrong this action is and release these American journalists already needlessly held for nearly two months now.”

The entire world is watching to see how North Korean will handle this important international issue.  It is the hope of RTNDA that the Pyongyang government will join with governments around the world in recognizing the right of journalists to work unfettered by political interference.  The release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee would certainly send a clear message to those watching that North Korea respects the basic right of journalists to investigate and report any story anywhere.

RTNDA represents members around the world, working to promote and protect journalistic freedoms everywhere it can.  Its leadership will continue to publicize these offenses against the free practice of journalism and fight for those wrongly detained, tried, or imprisoned.