LSE students union on Panorama: &quot;BBC used LSE students as a human shield&quot;

There are conflicting accounts of what was going on, but there are several examples of clear deception. The BBC may have told the students there was a journalist present before arriving at Beijing, but it was only AT Beijing that they were informed there were in fact three journalists, when it was a bit too late to change plans without going through enormous inconvenience. It seems fairly clear that Sweeney and his wife were being devious, revealing nuggets of information at just the right times to claim that the students could give 'informed consent', but without scaring students off and jeopardising their expedition.

Reply 2

I will also add that I don't think the BBC is in a position to outright deny the Chairman of LSE's request without a more thorough discussion of his concerns. 30 minutes of documentary is nothing compared to the ability of a university's academics to carry out their research. I think the BBC have an inflated sense of self-worth. Furthermore, from the sounds of things they were on the same guided tour that any NK tourist is given on arrival in the country, so the program will contain no information that you cannot already find out in freely available youtube videos such as this and this.

Reply 3

geetar

16

Whatever happened, the BBC should show it. We have hardly any insight into what North Korea is like, and it would be pretty dumb to throw away any info gained on it.

Reply 4

Hopple

To protect their image, shouldn't LSE have not publicised "We helped the BBC film in N Korea" and requested that nothing incriminating was shown in the documentary rather than announcing very publicly that they do smuggle reporters in and out of the country? N Korea are certainly going to be more suspicious of any LSE trip there in the future.

It seems that several knew about at least one journalist, and that they were put in a compromising position before being told there would be more journalists so they were pressured into agreeing. Whilst that's not right, I don't see how blocking the programme from going out helps at all, and publicising it rather than discreetly getting the BBC to blur everyone's faces definitely damages LSE, and probably UK universities as a whole.

Reply 5

Original post by geetar

Whatever happened, the BBC should show it. We have hardly any insight into what North Korea is like, and it would be pretty dumb to throw away any info gained on it.

It's a point that's been made several times, but they WILL NOT gain any new information as they were on the same tour as any other North Korean tourist and will not have been shown anything the DPRK government did not want them to see.

Reply 6

geetar

16

Original post by Unkempt_One

It's a point that's been made several times, but they WILL NOT gain any new information as they were on the same tour as any other North Korean tourist and will not have been shown anything the DPRK government did not want them to see.

They might not gain any new information, but because they are the media they will be able to distribute it more effectively.

They should definitely show it.

Reply 7

Fullofsurprises

OP

20

Original post by Unkempt_One

It's a point that's been made several times, but they WILL NOT gain any new information as they were on the same tour as any other North Korean tourist and will not have been shown anything the DPRK government did not want them to see.

It will be interesting to compare the programme with existing material - clearly this point is crucial in determining if this is all just hype by the BBC, or if Sweeney has genuinely new revelations.

Reply 8

Fullofsurprises

OP

20

Original post by Hopple

To protect their image, shouldn't LSE have not publicised "We helped the BBC film in N Korea" and requested that nothing incriminating was shown in the documentary rather than announcing very publicly that they do smuggle reporters in and out of the country? N Korea are certainly going to be more suspicious of any LSE trip there in the future.

It seems that several knew about at least one journalist, and that they were put in a compromising position before being told there would be more journalists so they were pressured into agreeing. Whilst that's not right, I don't see how blocking the programme from going out helps at all, and publicising it rather than discreetly getting the BBC to blur everyone's faces definitely damages LSE, and probably UK universities as a whole.

It certainly doesn't sound as if LSE management have handled it very well. Maybe they are being partly influenced by the fear of litigation by angry parents - some of the students have apparently had threatening letters from the NK government! It would be interesting to see what those say. :rolleyes:

Reply 9

Original post by geetar

They might not gain any new information, but because they are the media they will be able to distribute it more effectively.

They should definitely show it.

How will they distribute it more effectively than youtube? Anyone who's interested can google north korea and find the full range of publicly available knowledge within several hours of research.

Reply 10

geetar

16

Original post by Unkempt_One

How will they distribute it more effectively than youtube? Anyone who's interested can google north korea and find the full range of publicly available knowledge within several hours of research.

Because it's going to be buried amongst loads of other stuff. The internet is much more of a free for all than TV. Information overload.

More than anything else, though, the BBC has an international legitimacy that no video on youtube - or even youtube itself, for that matter - could ever hope to have.

Reply 11

Hopple

Original post by Fullofsurprises

It certainly doesn't sound as if LSE management have handled it very well. Maybe they are being partly influenced by the fear of litigation by angry parents - some of the students have apparently had threatening letters from the NK government! It would be interesting to see what those say. :rolleyes:

I'd expect accusations of being a spy if I went to N Korea - I'm not exactly sure what extra risk the extra companions could have brought, given that they're suspicious of outsiders in general and the group managed to get out anyway. However, expanding on my initial point, you can argue that publicising it in this way has made travelling to N Korea far more dangerous for an LSE student than taking some journalists along would/could have.

Reply 12

bestofyou

Nothing was stopping them going to Hong Kong/Seoul for a week after receiving compensation (for the Korean leg of the trip and new tickets) that Sweeney obviously would have paid when a threat to alert the North Koreans of his plans was made. I therefore don't see what the fuss is all about. It was late notice, but certainly not too late to act on it.

Original post by geetar

Whatever happened, the BBC should show it. We have hardly any insight into what North Korea is like, and it would be pretty dumb to throw away any info gained on it.

You do realise that North Korea allow tourists to visit the country (restrictions apply of course) and there wouldn't be much on this episode of panorama that any tourist who has been there didn't or couldn't see. If there is, it wouldn't be that big a deal otherwise the journalist wouldn't have been near it. They don't have labour camps next door to say the Juche Tower.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 13

419

14

Don't see how anyone can defend BBC in what was an extremely overt rouge operation. Giving out snippet of information just when it suited them. Hoe fortuitous that the trip was organised by Sweeney's wife.

Well done to the beeb for possibly ruin future reasearch and trips into NK.

Reply 14

419

14

Original post by Fullofsurprises

It certainly doesn't sound as if LSE management have handled it very well. Maybe they are being partly influenced by the fear of litigation by angry parents - some of the students have apparently had threatening letters from the NK government! It would be interesting to see what those say. :rolleyes:

But LSE had no involvement in the organisation of the trip just that the students happen to attend there, don't see why thry would feel the need to apologise to parents in any situation.

Reply 15

Alleykat606

What was very sneaky is that they did not reveal all information all at once. Handing out little pieces whenever they needed to as an explanation.

If the students feel they weren't given enough information or were lied to, then clearly more could have been done to secure the safety and well-being of these students

Reply 16

Original post by geetar

Because it's going to be buried amongst loads of other stuff. The internet is much more of a free for all than TV. Information overload.

More than anything else, though, the BBC has an international legitimacy that no video on youtube - or even youtube itself, for that matter - could ever hope to have.

If you search 'North Korea' on google you get nothing but information related to North Korea. I also fail to see how the BBC has more legitimacy than a similar smaller-scale journalistic operation. They are still essentially a mainstream media organisation and entertaining programming is as much an objective for them as reliable, insightful information.

Reply 17

Jordan-James

8

Trips to North Korea are basically tours of certain parts of the country, with a guide with you all the time. My politics teacher went there, he said it was very strange, there is a apparently a fake train station where NK employ people to walk up and down the escalators constantly, so to tourists it looks like a busy play, pretty amusing!

On trips to North Korea youre most likely not gonna find out much about the country. You barely see any citizens, my teacher was talking about a main road going through a city which had one bus on it, completely empty, and the driver drove constantly up and down.

Not to mention you have to bow at every statue and photo of the leaders.

Reply 18