North Korea is ruled by a dictatorship that is autonomic and
everything is done and approved by this one ruler. During the funeral of Kim
Jong-Il, former leader and dictator of North Korea, it is believed that two
comparison photographs show that a camera crew who were filming the mourning
event had been digitally erased from the original picture which left many
baffled (Parson, 2011).
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| Source: opencuba.blogspot.com |
It is said that the North Korean government edited the original
photo in order to express their power as a nation ruled by a communist leader.
As shown above, the camera crew which were filming the event behind mourners do
not appear in the photo on the right which was released by the North Korean
official Central News Agency (Himelboim & Limor, 2008).
This situation or instance is definitely defined as one
where no ethical principles were applied as they had edited the original
photograph to assert an ideology unto others. On the other hand, privacy of
their governing body and its dictatorship based communism should be left
totally out of the light as it does not concern others unless they make it
theirs (Kieran, 2000).
For a nation such as North Korea where freedom of expression
is under suppression, it would definitely affect the nation in terms of
political instability as well as depreciation of economy. It is believed that
freedom of speech is pivotal in expressing information and happenings to the
public as well as the media acting as a platform for social media network. In
addition to those claims, the press is the mediator of the occurrence and the
public therefore it is most important that freedom of speech is practised as
service to the public could be gravely affected (Netto, 2002).
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| Source: gawker.com |
In North Korea as well, news organizations are not allowed
to express their dissatisfactory claims aimed towards the government as
everything is autonomicaly controlled by them. It is also virtually impossible
for citizens to switch radio stations as they are all set permanently to tune
in to government controlled ones. Based on the implications mentioned, I
sternly believe that freedom of expression is thoroughly important in the media
especially (Hwang & Rigoulot, 2001).
References
- Parson,C 2011, It wasnt just tears were
stage-managed: Pictures show how North removed film crews from photos of
Kim Jong Il's funeral, viewed 12th June 2012,http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079802/Kim-Jong-Il-funeral-Pictures-North-Korea-removed-film-crews.html
- Himelboim, I. and Limor, Y., 2008, Media
Perception of Freedom of the Press: A Comparative International Analysis
of 242 Codes of Ethics, Journalism [Journal] vol.9 no.3, pg.
235-265.
- Kieran, Matthew, 2000, The Regulatory and
Ethical Framework, Investigative Journalism:
Context and Practice, de Burgh, Hugo (ed.) London, Routledge, pp.
156-76
- Hwang, C. and Rigoulot, P., 2001, The
Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag, Perseus Book
Group, USA.
- Netto, A, 2002, Media freedon in Malaysia,
Media Asia, vol. 29, no. 1, pg. 17-23.
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