Ban limits S. Korean reporter - Democratic Underground

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Mon Sep-08-08 06:23 AM
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Ban limits S. Korean reporter

Ban limits S. Korean reporter
By Ashley Rowland and Hwang Hae-rym, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Tuesday, September 9, 2008

SEOUL — A South Korean filmmaker says her government forced her to leave Iraq last month, where she was embedded with the U.S. military while filming a television documentary about the war.

Kim Young-me is now banned from leaving South Korea and could become one of the first South Koreans to go to jail under a year-old law banning its citizens from traveling to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Kim, 38, said the government’s decision was politically motivated: Few news reports about Iraq are filed in Korean, and the government doesn’t want people to think South Korean troops are in danger and push to withdraw them out of Iraq.

"They don’t want journalists working in Iraq," she said.

About 650 South Korean troops are stationed in Iraq to work on humanitarian aid projects. None of those troops are involved in combat, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57272

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