The BBC will launch a radio and online news service for audiences in North Korea as it seeks to expand its global reach to 500 million people by 2022, the British broadcaster said Wednesday. The ambitious plan will see the BBC create radio programmes as well as online and social media content in Korean, aimed at audiences in the secretive country, which imposes tight controls on access to information and media coverage.
Strict censorship means that North Koreans have to resort to illicit, tech-savvy measures to access foreign broadcasts such as the US-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. The BBC announcement, which comes as other state-sponsored broadcasters such as Qatar's Al-Jazeera, China's CCTV and RT (previously Russia Today) expand their footprint, could risk upsetting diplomatic relations between London and Pyongyang. Fran Unsworth, the BBC's World Service director, said: "Through war, revolution and global change, people around the world have relied on the World Service for independent, trusted, impartial news.
"As an independent broadcaster, we remain as relevant as ever in the 21st Century, when in many places there is not more free expression, but less." Foreign reporters invited to cover specific events in North Korea are subjected to very tight restrictions on access and movement.
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