(Yonhap Forum) Multiple checks on sources, neutrality crucial for N. Korea coverage: foreign media panel

SEOUL, June 27 (Yonhap) -- Efforts to verify sources and keeping an unprejudiced approach are vital considerations when covering North Korea as a news organization, a panel of foreign media representatives said Thursday. "We determine whether sources are strong enough for us to use. In terms of cross-referencing, we verify through officials, and we would get confirmation or denial," Giles Hewitt, editor-in-chief of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) Asia Pacific bureau said at the annual peace forum hosted by Yonhap News Agency. The panel, consisting of officials from six foreign news agencies -- the Associated Press, AFP, Kyodo, Reuters, Tass and Xinhua -- pointed out that extremely limited access to news reporting in North Korea has prodded them to reinforce the practice of careful verification. "It's a difficult country to operate in, (due to) the limited access. Not easy to get people to speak on the record. ... So you do your due diligence on who you're talking to," Adam Schreck, Asia-Pacific news director with the AP said during the discussion moderated by Lee Dong-min, a senior Yonhap journalist. "You need to do your cross-checks and be careful about stories that are too good to be true," he said. All of the agencies run a Pyongyang bureau, except for Reuters. Referring to recent speculative reports by local media about purges and executions in North Korea, the panelists called for as much prudence and fact-checking as possible. "Some of our competitors picked it up immediately, but we tried to address (the) intelligence sources. ... We acknowledge them as well and always explain the context," Schreck said. Schreck also stressed that his company never pays a source for a report, referring to how journalists are often approached by North Korean defectors asking for money in return for a story. Chang Ailing, vice president of Xinhua's Asia-Pacific bureau, said when it comes to sensational North Korean stories that are not verifiable, it's better not to report them at all. "If we cannot, we don't write about it," she said. Moon Chung-in, special security adviser to President Moon Jae-in, who was also at the discussion, warned of the media tendency to "demonize" North Korea, saying that it's important to report with an objective mind. Running a Pyongyang bureau has actually helped the foreign news agencies to stay away from having such prejudice, the panelists said. "It allows us the humanizing element, by interacting with people. We see couples strolling in a park, people fed up on a bus on their way to work -- it feeds into the work we do," Hewitt said. elly@yna.co.kr (END)