"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Saturday, January 27, 2007

North Korea objects to Press censorship

The Worldwide Index of Censorship
prepared by Reporters without Borders puts lists North Korea at 168th (out of 168) as "one of the worst predators of press freedom". They also list Turkmenistan (167th) and Eritrea (166th) - Turkmenistan journalist Ogulsapar Muradova was tortured to death and shows that the country’s leader, “President-for-Life” Separmurad Nyazov (deceased Dec.06), was willing to use extreme violence against those who dare to criticise him. They are also extremely concerned about a number of Eritrean journalists who have been imprisoned in secret for more than five years.

It therefore comes as a shock to learn that Kim Jong Il's demi paradise has been critical of their Southern neighbour South Korea (31st on the list) , one of the most wired nations on earth with 75% of the population having internet access, denying them the delights of the official DPRK news agency. Quite why anyone would want to access the KCNA official North Korean newsite is difficult to understand - except exceptional curiosity coupled with insomnia.

A sample ;

"The reactionaries of the land of Japs had better behave themselves, clearly mindful that their evermore frantic moves to suppress and stamp out the General Association of the Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) and Koreans in Japan would only precipitate their doomsday."


Which only adds credibility to the widely boosted view by Washington that they are a nation of rocket scientists.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thankfully Niyazov, at least, died on 21st December 2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov

ziz said...

Merde. 2 1/2 hrs and found out - (but now corrected) and his passing had not gone unnoticed by Lord Patel -
http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/search?q=Niyazov

Many a celebratory Turkmenbashi vodka was lowered in his honour - litle prospect his successor - no news yet - will be any more accomodating to journos or the citizenry.

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish