Indonesia inked a media deal today to swap news, journalists and television

Indonesia inked a media deal today to swap news, journalists and television shows with North Korea, a nation with one of the worst press freedom records in the world.

The deal, signed ahead of top North Korean official Kim Yong Nam’s visit this weekend, will facilitate an exchange of information between the two countries, which already share close diplomatic ties, said P.L.E. Priatna, director of information and media at Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry in a press release.

The secretary general of the Indonesian Communications and Information Ministry, Basuki Iskandar, met with North Korea’s Jong Yong Choi in Yogyakarta on Tuesday to hash out the details of the agreement in the nations’ first Joint Information Commission meeting.

Under the agreement, Indonesia and North Korea will exchange television shows, photos and news, Priatna said. In the near future, the two nations will also swap journalists.

North Korea was ranked as the second most censored country in the world by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2012. According to CPJ reports, news in North Korea is controlled by the government’s Korean Central News Agency and is saturated with anti-United States propaganda and glowing reports of life in one of the most isolated nations on earth.

Kim Yong Nam, the president of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, will be in Jakarta, visiting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from May 13 to 16, according to the Korean Central News Agency and the Indonesian government. Kim and Yudhoyono are expected to discuss Indonesia’s economic development and the nation’s management of its natural resources, according to Bloomberg reports.

A little progress??!

JG/Bloomberg