8th JUNE 2009

Sometimes journalists need to put themselves on the line to get the really good stories. At the same time, journalists need to ask themselves "is this story really with it? Is it as good as I'm making it out to be?" In the case of Lee and Ling, probably not.

On this day in 2009, a North Korean court announced that the two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who had attempted to cross the China/North Korea border in March, had been found guilty of illegal entry and were subsequently sentenced to twelve years hard labour.

The pair were working for U.S independent cable television network 'Current TV' co-founded by Al Gore, based in San Francisco, California. I'm not sure if the pair are still working there after this ordeal but at the time, Lee was the news editor of the channel and Ling was one of the agency's reporters.

Also, travelling with the pair was an American cameraman, Mitch Koss and a South Korean male guide. These two initially escaped capture by running away faster, and when caught were not charged or even detained, as there was no evidence implicating them of any crime, just the two women.

The exact story that the pair was working had numerous variations, including both a story about refugees and one on the trafficking of women.

At the time of their arrest, the two women were said to have been shooting video footage of the border region of China and North Korea, on the Korean side of the Tumen River. The two journalists claim they were only on Korean soil for about thirty seconds before crossing back to the Chinese side, nonetheless being caught by two Korean People's Army soldiers, Son Yong-ho and Kim Chol, who, during an interview on North Korean television, claimed that the two women had attempted to bribe him for their release after their capture, but that he had rejected their offer.

It was their sentencing and the knowledge that North Korean labour camps are particularly brutal, that initiated the involvement of the U.S government to 'free' the two reporters. Apparently all these high ranking government officials were involved, with former U.S president Bill Clinton making a publicly unannounced visit to North Korea on August 4.

A day later the two reporters were given a pardon by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and were sent back to America.

Coincidence? I think not. But that really is beside the point, as I'm 100% sure that there is more to that story that I am just deciding not to look into.

What was most interesting for me was that Christian missionaries working amongst North Korean refugees in north east China say that the whole scenario was a scheme in which the guide was involved to capture a "foreign prize", what we would commonly refer to as a journalist. Yet the guide denies even suggesting the two reporters should go near the river, in fact, stating that he had warned them to avoid the area of the border.

The 'foreign prize scheme' idea is however strengthened when Ling made a statement against this remark, claiming that Chun, the guide, had not warned them and had not really said anything about going or not going to the river.

I guess there are two morals here in this story. Make sure you know the rules when travelling or travelling with work. And two, seriously think about whether or not the story is going to be worth it all.

Because as much as the refugee/trafficking of women story would have been good journalism, you shouldn't let the story rule you.




Image available: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2009-08-05/news/17934078_1_euna-lee-laura-ling-north-korea