North Korea And Panorama Tonight

[DTCwordfan]

Who is watching?

(I am)

Do you agree with the BBC's position as to the LSE students?

(I don't - I think that there has been major duplicity here)

However the programme is too valuable (content allowing) not to show it.

Agree with that?

[Quizmonster]

The only feature of the programme that was 'new', as far as I could see, was the patient-free hospital. The poverty and puppetry of the population were already well-established. I have no idea why any future 'real' academic visits were jeopardised for this.

[emmie]

i think that it was a reprehensible thing for the BBC to do, and John Sweeney and the production people should be fired for such a breach of trust.

[EDDIE51]

I saw it and it did not tell us anything that was not already known if you had bothered to do a bit of research.

[jake-the-peg]

The BBC insist that all the students were briefed both individually and as a group including the risks perceived.

Although they it was only in Beijing that they were told it was the BBC and that there wee 3 rather than 1 journalist.

Regrettable as that may be I think the idea that the students were unwitting human shields is a long way from the truth.

Caught the last half of the program which I thought was good but the commentry was dreadfully over done

[emmie]

not according to some they weren't. They weren't told until they were in Beijing. By that stage it was too late. You don't do underhand stuff like this, and if the students had known, why would they have put their lives or liberty at risk, because i sure as hell wouldn't.

[emmie]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/15/lse-students-north-korea-bbc

[DTCwordfan]

I don't think that it actually showed that much we didn't know (even allowing for the hospital). All those business and first class fares to Pyongyang (£2860 Business and £4455 in First to Beijing and then the final leg in plus all the rest) weren't worth the tax payers money......and, more importantly, making life for student visits across the world that much more difficult. What did they show - 15 mins max of lousy footage, the rest being compilation of old material.

[emmie]

interesting part in that link i provided that it was John Sweeney's wife who organised the trip off her own bat.

[abstibus]

There was nothing new about the programme except for some interesting insight from some of the talking heads.

[emmie]

perhaps it wasn't new, even so there is a dispute as to who knew what, and the parents seem to be rather up in arms over the duplicity, if that is what it was, that their children should have been put in harms way. Going on John Sweeney's confrontational style, i remember watching him lose it completely whilst interviewing a guy from the Scientology cult, ranting and raving. Had the North Koreans known who he was he wouldn't have got leave to be there, seeing as all journalists are banned.

[1ndex]

Dave will get a flea in his ear from Obama

[jake-the-peg]

Actually that article doesnt have students saying they didn't get briefed - it has the LSE saying that students weren't briefed

It wasn't an LSE trip but a pricate trip of LSE students and the LSE seem to have waded in rather on this

Same paper

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/14/bbc-north-korea-panorama-film

From what I can see 3 of the students seem to have objected after returning home - I imagine after the inflation of the trip from 1 journalist to 3 - which isn't than unfair a complaint I have to say - and the LSE has taken up the offensive.


Again I don't think they were 'unwitting dupes'

[emmie]

i know that as i read the guardian link. It says John Sweeney's wife organised it, he works for the BBC though doesn't he. I still think they shouldn't have done this, it was foolish and rather grandstanding on the journalists part.

[youngmafbog]

I'm sure we will get an unbiased opinion from the Left wing guardian on the subject of the left wing BBC.

It was totally stupid and selfish act, and for what? We know what the problems are and there is s*d all we can do about it. This is clearly just journalists trying to make a name for themselves and the idiotic BBC thinking they can do what they like, ie break a law in another country.

The BBC should be got rid of once and for all.

[modeller]

The world is awash with journalists , spies, agents call them what you will and will not change because of pious posts in AB or elsewhere.

ymb // ie break a law in another country//
On that basis no documentaries would be made anywhere , Syria, Iran, Iraq , Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Rumania, Russia, China the list is endless . It is probably true to say every documentary is made against the wishes of someone.

//We know what the problems are and there is s*d all we can do about it//

Oh yes, do we , and how did we get that information in the first place ?

Every documentary uses some sort of cover. Cultural, tourist visas, student exchange visits, medical treatment, language study , sporting events, .

[bibblebub]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/apr/17/north-korea-students-criticise-lse

"Six of the 10 London School of Economics students who travelled to North Korea with an undercover BBC Panorama crew have rounded on the university, claiming that it has placed them in greater danger than the trip to the secretive state itself."

"The students said they were told in London that a journalist would accompany them and that they risked deportation or detention if they were rumbled. In Beijing, before they flew to Pyongyang, they were informed that Sweeney was the journalist and that he worked for the BBC, they said. They were also joined by Sweeney's wife, Tomimo Newson, who organised the trip, and a BBC cameraman, who was briefly suspected as a spy by the students when he joined the group in Beijing."

So not quite as reported before.

[LazyGun]

Interesting article that, Bibble. Weird to get such conflicting views from such a small group, and the allegations of lack of consultation with the actual members of the tour prior to public complaints seems very odd.