The Associated Press carries only positive news about North Korea and those reports are vetted by Kim Jong Un's government before they are published, according to news reports.
The agency, the only independent news organization in Pyongyang, will "serve the purpose of the coverage and worldwide distribution of policies of the Worker’s Party of Korea and the DPRK government," according to an internal draft agreement between AP and North Korea’s state-run media outlet, the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA),
NK News reports.
The draft is dated December 2011 and was "obtained by NK News from sources inside the AP," according to the extensive report. The document's authenticity "was confirmed by interviews with 14 current and former AP staff involved in news production from the AP’s Pyongyang bureau," the report states.
No stories about the recent hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment or the disappearance of Kim for six weeks earlier this year were written by the bureau, according to the report.
"AP tries not to be a mouthpiece of North Korea, but it is basically impossible under the terms the bureau operates," a senior AP journalist in Asia told NK News. The person spoke on the condition on anonymity, "due to not being authorized to speak to third-party media about the issue," the report said.
"The foreign AP staffers are under so many limitations that there has not been any unfettered real journalism produced by the AP bureau in Pyongyang," the journalist said.
AP established the bureau in 2012.
Founded in 2011, NK News is based in Washington and has reporters in Seoul, New York and London. It was described as a "watchdog group" by
Mediate in its report on the draft agreement.
Under the draft, changes to state-produced content to be distributed by AP must be made with "full consultation between the two sides," according to NK News.
In addition, "KCNA shall nominate" the full-time staffers that AP was to hire for its Pyongyang bureau, the draft states, and that "the average $12,000 per month" for salaries and office rental fees would be paid by a "method requested by (the) KCNA."
The draft also says that the "KCNA shall be responsible for all the procedures inside the DPRK for the opening and operation of bureau."
International AP staff appointed to Pyongyang are not issued permanent visas to live and work full-time in the country under the agreement.
Further, the effect of the accord played out in interviews of U.S. political prisoners who had recently been released from North Korea, NK News reports.
The former prisoners — Matthew Miller, of Bakersfield, Calif., and Jeffrey Fowle, of Miamisburg, Ohio — told NK News that they were coerced and coached into giving statements to the local AP representatives who interviewed them.
AP allowed this, according to NK News, and the interviews have not been published.
The Associated Press, the global news cooperative established in 1846 and based in New York,
slammed the NK News report, with spokesman Paul Colford calling its claims "laughable."
The article was written by Nate Thayer, whom AP identified in a statement as a former freelancer in North Korea. The statement said that in the late 1990s, Thayer "became disgruntled over a distribution agreement with AP covering video he had shot in Cambodia."
"More recently, he dismissed the value of AP’s North Korea bureau shortly before he sought from AP detailed proprietary information about the bureau for further articles that were published on Dec. 24 by NKnews.org," the AP statement said.
"No serious news organization would hand over the kind of business agreements, salary information and other payment documentation that Mr. Thayer sought. His latest articles from Dec. 24 are full of errors, inaccuracies and baseless innuendo.
"The 'draft agreement' between AP and North Korea's KCNA news agency that he cites is remote from the final document," Colford said. "Among other inaccuracies, AP does not distribute outright KCNA stories, as Mr. Thayer concludes, but at times AP cites KCNA reports, as do most other news organizations, including his publisher.
"Because of his reliance on this 'draft agreement,' he makes the laughable assertion that AP's Pyongyang bureau submits to censorship by the North Korean government."
Colford's statement further attacks the NK News report:
"It is unlikely that Mr. Thayer spoke to as many AP sources as he claims. Indeed, Chad O'Carroll, the editor of NKnews.org, told an AP news leader several days ago that he would not publish Mr. Thayer's latest attack against AP after all.
"It is regrettable that the website decided to reverse course on Dec. 24 because of a newly found 'draft agreement,'" the statement said.
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