Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office-funded project "Inside Out: Working in North Korea to connect its journalists to the internet world" in the light of the findings of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry in respect of the control of media content in North Korea by that country's Publication and Broadcasting Department, the level of editorial freedom, the pre-determined and centrally controlled nature of stories and the availability of internet access.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) maintains extremely tight control over media and restricts access to foreign broadcasting. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office funded project ‘Inside Out: Working in North Korea to connect its journalists to the internet world’ is an on-going media project being delivered by the Thomson Foundation, an independent UK organisation with a proven track record of working in a number of countries, including now, for the first time, in DPRK. The project aims to expose participants to the UK media, instructing them on international reporting practices and the development of technical skills to build websites using a variety of international sources.

A pilot workshop was held in Pyongyang between 13-22 October, comprising 46 DPRK participants. The next and final stage of the project will be a study tour to the UK, which is planned to take place in early 2015, and which will be undertaken by some participants from the October workshop, to see how multimedia websites work at British media companies.