Censorship on the United States Media

 

Does North Korea have a say on censorship in the United States?

    In 2014 the Sony-produced movie The Interview was released to the public for viewers' consumption. This would trigger multiple implications with North Korea and even get president Barrack Obama involved. Though it would be naive to say that Sony was blindsided by the backlash the movie would bring, there were many problems before the movie even came out. In June of 2014, 6 months before the release of The Interview, North Korea made a public statement saying the movie's release would be an "act of war." North Korea was getting upset over the film because the movie planned to show a detailed death scene of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un. Kazuo Hirai, Sony's Japanese CEO, stated that he did not want the film to go public. Many renditions of the death scene were made before Sony got a green light. 

    The Interview's original set time to release was in October but got pushed back to December after Sony was hacked regarding the movie's production. The "Guardians of Peace" was the hacker group that attacked Sony, seizing over terabytes of data, unreleased movies, and scandalous e-mails. The reaction that the movie was receiving caught president Barrack Obama's attention. This was due to movie theaters choosing not to show the movie and other media outlets choosing not to stream it. Obama said, "We cannot have a society in which some dictators someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States" North Korea was quick to call Obama a "monkey" in their response to his. Soon after, North Korea faced an internet outage which when brought up by the DPRK accusing the US of such doings, the United States authorities were silent. When the movie was officially released, star actor and director Seth Rogan publically stated that he was happy the movie was released and was screened in theaters.