YouTuber flew to North Korea to compete in marathon and is shocked at what he caught on camera
While things might seem lax in the Western world when it comes to the likes of social media and censorship, it's easy to forget there are massive corners of the globe where something as simple as accessing Facebook is illegal.
Countries like Iran, China, and Vietnam are tightly controlled, but this is largely nothing compared to how North Korea has made a name for itself as the censorship capital.
North Korea has continued with its strict regime since Kim Jong Un took over in 2011, and while Article 67 of the country’s constitution calls for freedom of the press, nearly all of its content comes from the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Although the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse have tiny bureaus in North Korea, international correspondents are known to have been denied entry, expelled, or even detained.
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The global internet is restricted to the 'political elite', meaning bootleg versions of foreign TV and radio signals feature alongside smuggled DVDs are ways for most North Koreans to get their information on the wider world.
Considering YouTube is banned in North Korea, you might imagine that the arrival of a YouTuber there to film the Pyongyang Marathon might've caused a bit of a stir.
YouTuber Harry Jaggard put on his running shoes and entered the Mangyondae Prize International Marathon, which has only allowed foreign runners to enter since 2014.
Jaggard is a self-confessed "professional idiot completing side missions," but with over two million subscribers, it seems you lap up his content as he heads to "less-visited areas of the world” and documents his time there.
Some of his most popular videos include 'renting' a girlfriend in Japan, being kicked out of Punjab's Golden Temple, and taking a peek inside a Filipino prison.
Jaggard might've expected a frosty reception in North Korea, but in reality, he was shocked about how free he was to film his usual content.
Not bad for a country where the very platform he posts on is banned.
Speaking to the New York Post, Jaggard explained: "I was not expecting [to be able to vlog] at all. I thought that it would be very minimal, maybe a few clips that I would voice over. To have the freedom that I was given was crazy. They were very relaxed.”
Describing it as a 'highlight reel', Jaggard admits that he knows he was only being shown the best parts of the country, with the whole thing being a bit of a show as he glimpsed modern houses and 'super clean' streets: "They showed us the tour that they wanted to show,” he explained. “It’s like going on a tour of America but only seeing Las Vegas, like the shiny parts.”
Taking part in a curated tour that included the North Korea subway system, war museums, monuments to the monuments to Workers Party and former leader Kim Jong-il, and even a beer joint, he made the most of his time in the country.
His tour guide told him he'd enter North Korea "with 100 questions and you’ll leave with 1,000 questions," with Jaggard wholeheartedly agreeing now that he's home.
Saying that North Korea had been on his bucket list for a while, Jaggard only had a month to prepare for his visit. Still, in a place where journalism is so tightly controlled, Jaggard says he doesn't think people realize how big YouTubers can be: "They say no journalists are allowed on the tour, and I think YouTubers are definitely in the gray area, because we’re not technically journalists, but you could argue that my piece was journalism — just not very good journalism."