A/HRC/25/CRP.1 used by ordinary citizens. Free-dial radios are confined to specific organizations, or are used by the military for purposes of emergency situations.179 202. DPRK citizens with some technical knowledge are able to listen to the radio, including foreign broadcasts, while avoiding detection. A skilled technician can substitute the missing components in a recorder such that a nail can be used externally to complete the circuit to allow someone listening to the radio using earphones to appear as if he or she was simply listening to the recorder. Short wave radio broadcasts produced by stations located in or set up by the ROK are also easily accessible with appropriate equipment.180 Several of these Seoul-based radio stations, some funded by the USA, are run by former DPRK nationals and provide listeners with not only news from outside the DPRK but also news regarding the DPRK and the government’s activities not normally broadcast internally.181 203. As portable free-tuning radios from China are inexpensive and can easily be concealed, DPRK citizens are also reported to secretly purchase and smuggle these into the country, despite the obvious risks of being caught with one.182 Kim Jong-il reportedly issued an order in 1999 to the SSD that anyone found to have a small mobile radio should be treated as a spy. Department 27 officials carry out surprise inspection visits to private households in order to investigate whether people have manipulated their state-approved radios/recorders and televisions or secretly acquired equipment, smuggled in from China, in order to receive foreign broadcasts. If anyone is detected with forbidden equipment, their television set or radio is confiscated and they are sent for ideology re-education. If they are officials, they are liable to lose their positions.183 • One witness, who worked as an inspector checking televisions and radios in North Hamgyong Province near the Chinese border, described how he had to check the equipment in an area inhabited by privileged officials. He remembered once catching a mother who allowed her small children to watch the cartoon “Tom and Jerry” on Chinese television. The mother pleaded with him not to report her, and, in exchange for a bribe, he did not.184 (b) Control of print media and the Internet, and other means of communication 204. In 2009, the DPRK informed the Human Rights Council that there are 480 newspapers published and circulated in the DPRK at national and provincial levels, factories, enterprises and universities. It was also claimed that there “were hundreds of kinds of magazines published by scores of publishing houses.”185 205. A witness who worked in the state media apparatus in the DPRK told the Commission that all of these newspapers, despite their different titles and reporters, have essentially the same content. All media content, including television, newspapers and radio, is controlled by the Publication and Broadcasting Department which operates within the Propaganda Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea. 206. There is no editorial freedom in the DPRK; all stories published at all levels are predetermined and centrally controlled. The Publication and Broadcasting Department issues a 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 56 TAP009, TJH008. TAP009. Reporters Without Borders, “North Korea: Frontiers of Censorship – Investigation Report”, October 2011, pp. 4, 8. Intermedia, “A Quiet Opening: North Koreans in a Changing Media Environment”, May 2012. p. 21. Available from http://www.intermedia.org/a-quiet-opening-in-north-korea/. TAP009, TJH008. TJH008. A/HRC/WG.6/6/PRK/1, para. 42.