Freedomedia

The North Korean government has announced that two American journalists who were captured near the Chinese border will stand trial for entering the country illegally.

The two reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, are employed by Al Gore’s San Francisco-based cable outlet Current TV. They were arrested on March 17 while reporting from the frozen Tumen, which forms the border between China and North Korea. They were working on a story about North Korean refugees.

But one would never know that two of Current’s reporters could spend the next five to ten years in a North Korean labor camp by visiting the company’s Web Site. In fact, Pacifica has confirmed that any effort to publicize the plight of the two reporters in the company’s online forums is quickly scrubbed from the site.

Current TV has not issued a public statement about its reporters and repeated calls seeking comment have gone unreturned. When journalist Ian Port visited Current’s headquarters, he was told to turn off his camera and asked to leave.

The company’s silence has generated concern from reporters and press activists around the world. Curt Hopkins, the Executive Director for the Committee to Protect Bloggers, told Pacifica that while security experts sometimes recommend keeping quiet to ensure the quick return of captives, the silence could actually delay their release.

Hopkins: We were told by people in larger organizations than our own that the best thing to do is to kind of shut up and if you just don’t stir up anything, they’ll be released. I’m sure that does happen every once in a while, and I’m also certain that given former Vice President’s Gore’s connection with diplomatic circles that probably every diplomatic thing is being done. However, there’s just a tendency in general to advocate for silence, and my experience, having been contacted as the head of the Committee to Protect Bloggers by a number of different people who knew they were going to be questioned by the security forces in their country, they said to me, ‘don’t do anything right now, but if you don’t hear from me in 48 hours just sound the alarm as loud as you possibly could’

Hopkins said that Current’s decision to censor comments posted on its Web site about its imprisoned reporters leaves him feeling like the company has abandoned its reporters.

Hopkins: I just think it makes them an organization, which no reasonable journalist, whether citizen or professional, would have anything to do with, because whatever is going on behind the scenes, and it may be quite a lot, I don’t know, but I’m not going to take that chance. I won’t work for them. Because for all I know their main consideration is their IPO. They don’t have so much as a badge on their site that says ‘don’t forget these two’. … If I’m working for you, you owe me. If I’m risking myself and going to strange situations and so on, I’m not just in your debt, you’re in my debt and you damn well better step up if something like this happens.

Robert Wood, a spokesperson for the State Department said at a press conference today that the United States is quietly working to secure the release of Lee and Ling.

Wood: The best I can tell you is we’ve seen these reports. And again, we continue to call on the North Koreans to release the two Americans so they can be returned to their families. We’ll continue to work this issue through diplomatic channels. As I’ve said we’re trying to work this quietly and we’re going to continue to work it, but I don’t have much to say beyond that right now.

But with no formal diplomatic relations between the US and North Korea, the process of negotiating their release is difficult. John Feffer is the Co-director of Foreign Policy and Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. He says that Current’s decision not to comment may be the best approach to secure their release.

Feffer: Once you raise a public human cry, you may very well block the option of pursuing quiet diplomacy, so I think most folks concerned with the case are trying, at least at this point, to see what can be done quietly, and I think that’s appropriate. … Pursuing the quiet approach, at least at this point, seems to promise the greatest likelihood of success.

Robert Mahoney, the deputy director for the Committee to Protect Journalists told Pacifica that while there have been indications that Lee and Ling are being treated humanely, neither humanitarian groups nor the US Government have been granted access to them. A Swedish representative did visit the two reporters last month.

Mahoney: North Korea is probably the most heavily censored country in the world. It doesn’t have any press except for government press and so therefore it’s an extremely difficult country to report from. We have seen that these two journalists were detained on the border with china in circumstances which, as far as we can tell, are not fully explained. It therefore is extremely difficult to get information about them and to work for their release with a government that has a history of not taking the world’s opinion into consideration.

Reporter’s without Borders has created a petition of journalists and bloggers calling for the release of the two Current reporters.

Brendan McShane Creamer, a Philadelphia resident who knows Laura Ling’s sister Lisa, has created a Facebook group about the plight of thejournalists, which now has more than 2,500 members calling for theirrelease.

Creamer has organized a candle-light vigil in front of Current TV’s San Francisco headquarters at 7 o’clock Tuesday night, and another vigil will be held at Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks California at the same time.

Creamer: I decided Current would be a great place to start and then Del Campo High School is where Laura Ling attended high school, and Lisa Ling also attended there. I’ve been in contact with Lisa Ling and so, with her permission and everything, I’ve been putting information out on the group page on Facebook and e-mailing people. She just sent me a message to send out to everyone on Facebook, on the group page, and she has it posted on her page, thanking everyone for this vigil, and stating the reasons why she can’t come out in public and be in the public eye in regards to this story.

On May 21, another vigil will be held in New York City in front of MSNBC, which is being organized by retired JAG lawyer and legal analyst Gwendolyn Lindsay Jackson.

Jackson told Pacifica that she felt compelled to do whatever she can to help Ling and Lee return home safe and return home soon.

Jackson: I just really feel for these families and I feel for these women, because they can’t be forgotten. Commonsense would tell you that if you forget about somebody it doesn’t go away if you sweep it under the rug. Clearly if efforts were being made behind the scenes during the height of the scare with the North Koreans launching that rocket a few weeks ago, well that’s already happened, its done, things should have moved on by now. The longer this drags on, the more worrisome it becomes for me, as a human being.

For Pacifica Radio in Berkeley, I’m Josh Wolf