A British program broadcast in North Korea: a rare event that, however, does not escape censorship. This Monday, March 25, the Korean channel KCTV broadcast an episode of the BBC program Garden Secrets (Garden Secrets in French) presented by journalist Alan Titchmarsh.
However, the attire of this professional gardener, kneeling in the dirt and with his sleeves rolled up, did not please the North Korean regime. His jeans particularly appeared in the viewfinder because they were seen as a symbol of American imperialism. Result: his legs were blurred, several British media reported, including the BCC.
And this, to avoid the “spread of an anti-socialist ideology […] and so that North Koreans can protect their own ideology, their spirit and their culture”, as stated in the law that prohibits jeans in this country in 2020. A year marked by an increase in censorship against “decadent” Western culture.
This same law simply prohibits the population from distributing, viewing or listening to any cultural content considered anti-socialist, under penalty of forced labor or, in certain cases, even the death penalty.
“I never considered myself a subversive imperialist”
More specifically, jeans have been banned in North Korea since the early 1990s. Former leader Kim Jong Il stated that jeans were “absolutely prohibited and people should not wear them under any circumstances,” reports Korea researcher Peter Ward. of the North in the American media specialized in this country, NKNews.
Please note that jeans are not prohibited for tourists venturing into North Korea.
The censorship of his pants was enough to amuse the presenter himself. “I’ve never considered myself a subversive, dangerous imperialist. I’m generally considered a kind and fairly harmless person, so that gave me a bit of credibility, didn’t it?” he joked to the BBC. .
In addition to this sequence, the program broadcast on North Korean airwaves from 2022 is systematically modified. It normally lasts an hour, but is reduced to 15 minutes and the journalist’s comments are replaced by those of a Korean narrator.
It is difficult to know if this country, which lives in autarky, has acquired the rights to broadcast Secrets of the garden. If North Korea regularly broadcasts “politically neutral” programs, such as sports, NKNews reports that it is “likely” that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has pirated this broadcast to circumvent international sanctions imposed since 2006.
Source: BFM TV
