SEOUL -- Agence France-Presse is opening a bureau in North Korea in hopes of providing a deeper look into one of the world’s most secretive and tightly controlled nations.
The Paris-based news agency reached an agreement with the Korean Central News Agency, the state-run propaganda outlet, to open a bureau in Pyongyang by mid-2016. That would make it one of just a handful of foreign media outlets -- the Associated Press, China’s Xinhua, Japan’s Kyodo News and Russia’s Sputnik International have bureaus there -- with a physical presence in the country.
.@AFP announces new bureau in North Korea https://t.co/KHgdGre8DP pic.twitter.com/axcdnto34R— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 19, 2016
AFP Chairman Emmanuel Hoog said in a statement that this bureau will "further strengthen the Agency’s international network." He also added that "AFP’s role is to be present everywhere in the world in order to fulfill its news mission as completely as possible, in particular through images.”
However, it’s unclear just how much freedom the agency will have to report on Kim Jong-un’s North Korea, where all domestic media serves as a mouthpiece for the regime. The isolated country had the second-worst ranking in last year’s World Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders, ahead of only the small African country of Eritrea.
The bureau will be staffed by two permanent North Korean employees, whose photo and video work will be subject to editorial oversight by AFP journalists, according to the agency. The AFP will also send its own reporters to the Pyongyang bureau about once a month. It's text-based news will be written by staff.
Competing agency AP's Pyongyang bureau has been plagued by controversy since its launch in 2012. Critics have questioned its independence and lack of coverage of major events.
Nate Thayer, a former AP stringer, claimed in 2014 that the AP had given the North Korean government significant editorial control over its coverage. In his article, Thayer claimed that a draft agreement showed the newswire agreed to transmit a certain number of KCNA articles and not change the contents without “full consultation between the two sides.”
The AP denied the report and said its final deal differed significantly from the draft agreement.
Eric Talmadge, AP's Pyongyang bureau chief, frequently posts photos from North Korea on Instagram:
Pyongyang portrait. Another shot from the ice rink. A photo posted by erictalmadge (@erictalmadge) on Jan 19, 2016 at 7:08pm PST
Mirae scientists street, Pyongyang's new showcase development project. A photo posted by erictalmadge (@erictalmadge) on Jan 18, 2016 at 6:45am PST
In response to the AP controversy, AFP spokesman Philippe Massonnet told Mashable that the agency had not agreed to any self-censorship or to give Pyongyang any control over its coverage.
“AFP has not agreed to anything like that,” he said. “The agreement makes no reference to any restriction.”
Massonnet indicated the AFP would not publicly release the exact terms of its agreement with the KCNA because "the company does not make signed agreements public,” he said.
While North Korea is renowned for its general hostility toward journalists, its opening of the door to the AFP could be a way of boosting its limited ties with France, according to Adam Cathcart, a lecturer at the University of Leeds.
He pointed out that, although North Korea doesn't have formal diplomatic recognition with France, French diplomat Emmanuel Rousseau lives in Pyongyang.
"I assume [Rousseau] was part of the process of getting AFP in the door,” Cathcart said. He added that North Korea had seen the AP as a way to reach out to Washington.