DailyNK.com is a news service with the goal of disseminating information from within North Korea. North Korea has no freedom of the press and the state demands heavy censorship, and these policies have led to the isolationist country being dubbed the “hermit kingdom.” DailyNK, based in South Korea and staffed in part by democracy advocates, seeks to open the flow of information from within.
DailyNK publishes articles in four languages, and is therefore an important source of information for people around the world who are seeking North Korean news. Recently DailyNK turned to Indiegogo to launch a campaign in order to fund a responsive redesign of their web site, which would allow the site to display gracefully on devices from small smartphones on up to desktop PCs. It’s an approach called responsive web design, and it’s an increasingly popular way to build web sites.
However, after launch the campaign was placed in “draft mode.” Indiegogo had temporarily suspended the account while they worked to confirm that DailyNK was not violating UN sanctions against North Korea.
In a statement on the DailyNK web site yesterday, the news service clarified…
Unfortunately, Indiegogo has decided to freeze the Daily NK account and temporarily take down the campaign page pending review by its trust and safety department. Indiegogo has expressed concern that Daily NK may be breaking UN sanctions against North Korea.
Regular visitors to www.dailynk.com will already know how absurd such an accusation is, and Daily NK wishes to assure everyone who has contributed to the crowdfunding project to date or who may be thinking of doing so that investments in the future of the North Korean people and free media on the Korean Peninsula are safe, and that Indiegogo will clear the campaign to continue in the coming days.
Now the campaign is back up, and the $4,400+ in contributions the campaign had received before the campaign was suspended are still present. That puts the campaign at over 40% of their goal with 26 days to go.
We’ve reached out to Indiegogo for more information on why the campaign was reviewed and will update with more information if and when it becomes available.
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