North Korea officials sentenced American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years of hard labor on Monday. The women were working for Current TV along the China-North Korea border when they were taken by North Korean government officials. They have been in jail since March.
Numerous journalist advocacy organizations have called for their release, including Reporters Without Borders and the International Women’s Media Foundation and Amnesty International.
According to a statement from Reporters Without Borders:
“These 12-year sentences are a terrible shock for all those who have repeatedly insisted on their innocence,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The sentences are much more severe than anything we had imagined. The authorities in Pyongyang must urgently reverse this decision and allow Ling and Lee to rejoin their families.”
The sentences were clearly designed to scare journalists trying to do investigative reporting in the border area between China and North Korea, which is ranked as Asia’s worst country in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.”