Current TV Journalists Detained In North Korea

Sunday, March 22, 2009

I heard about this coming on my way to work on NPR this week and whether or not they didn't heed the border warnings or there's some NK spin on the story (and a lot of the news is conflicting as to even where they were taken) - you just hope for the safe return of the two Current TV journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling:

Two American journalists were missing Friday after they reportedly were detained by North Korea for ignoring warnings to stop shooting footage of the reclusive country.

Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's online media outlet Current TV, were seized Tuesday along the Chinese-North Korean border, according to news reports and an activist who had worked with them. Their Chinese guide also was detained although a third journalist with the group, Mitch Koss, apparently eluded capture.

U.S. officials expressed concern to North Korean officials about the reported detentions and said they were working with the Chinese government to ascertain the whereabouts of the Americans.

"When you have two American citizens who are being held against their will, we want to find out all the facts and gain their release," State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said Thursday in Washington.
Lings family (who's sister is Lisa Ling) hasn't commented on the situation, and neither have Lee's, which seems understandable, and the last that anyone heard from Ling was updates from Twitter which wrote "Missing Home".

Here's a short video of Euna Lee from her Current TV page just having some fun (and if the video isn't showing up you can get to it here):



Here's a video from Laura Ling's Current TV page titled "A Jail in Juarez":