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BBC refuses to drop North Korea Panorama documentary BBC refuses to drop North Korea Panorama documentary
(about 9 hours later)
The BBC has insisted it will broadcast a controversial Panorama documentary about North Korea, despite protests from the London School of Economics (LSE) that journalist John Sweeney put its staff working abroad at risk by posing as a student from the institution to gain access to the communist state. The BBC has insisted it will broadcast a Panorama documentary about North Korea, despite protests from the London School of Economics (LSE) that journalist John Sweeney put its staff working abroad at risk by posing as a student from the institution to gain access to the communist state.
Tony Hall, the newly arrived BBC director general, has rejected a request from LSE chairman Peter Sutherland to shelve the Panorama documentary. Tony Hall, the BBC director general, has rejected a request from the LSE chairman, Peter Sutherland, to shelve the documentary, North Korea Uncovered, due to be broadcast on BBC1 on Monday night.
Hall, who has already had to defuse a row over anti-Thatcher song Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead less than two weeks after taking over at the BBC, responded to a letter from Sutherland last week. He is understood to have said that the Panorama documentary on North Korea would go ahead, as there was a clear public interest in reporting on the escalating situation in the country. Hall, who has already had to defuse a row over the anti-Thatcher song Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead less than two weeks after taking over at the BBC, responded to a letter from Sutherland on Saturday. He is understood to have said the documentary would go ahead as there was a clear public interest in reporting on the escalating situation in North Korea.
The director general is also understood to have said that the BBC had considered the risks involved and made sure the students on the trip were able to make an informed decision about the potential danger. Hall is also understood to have said that the BBC had considered the risks involved and made sure the students on the trip were able to make an informed decision about the potential danger.
Ceri Thomas, BBC News head of programmes, echoed this line on Sunday, saying the Panorama documentary – North Korea Undercover, due to be broadcast on Monday evening – was an "important piece of public interest journalism" and that the LSE students on the academic trip Sweeney used to gain access to North Korea had given their informed consent for him to accompany them. However, the LSE disputed whether the students gave their informed consent, claiming they had been deliberately misled by the BBC, and challenged the corporation's risk assessment. "It is LSE's view that the students were not given enough information to enable informed consent, yet were given enough to put them in serious danger if the subterfuge had been uncovered prior to their departure from North Korea," the university said in an email sent to all staff and students on Saturday.
"The material fact is that [the LSE students on the trip] were made fully aware of what the risks were if this journalist were to be discovered. The only people we deceived were the North Korean government," Thomas, a former editor of Radio 4's Today programme, told the same station's The World This Weekend on Sunday lunchtime. Foreign journalists can not get visas to enter North Korea but overseas academics and students can. Sweeney spent eight days in the country in March with the LSE group on a trip ostensibly arranged by the Grimshaw Club – the student society of the university's international relations department.
"This is an important piece of public interest journalism. This is a country hidden from view and central to current events." The LSE said it first became aware of the true nature of his visit last Tuesday during a meeting with BBC staff. The university said North Korean authorities alleged that Sweeney had described himself on his visa application as an "LSE student, PhD in history" and gave as his address a room number that is used by a member of its academic staff.
However, George Gaskell, pro-director of the LSE and professor of social psychology, clashed with Thomas on The World This Weekend, disputing whether students on the trip had known the true nature of Sweeney's activities and accusing the BBC of deliberately misleading them. Students on the trip reported that their North Korean guides repeatedly referred to Sweeney as "professor" and he went along with this, according to the LSE. Sweeney graduated from the LSE in 1980 with a BSc in government and if he has a PhD, it is not from there, according to the university.
The LSE had earlier said students on the trip may have been told Sweeney was a journalist, but not that he and two other BBC journalists travelling with them would be using the visit to film an undercover documentary. The LSE said students on the trip were not told before setting off that Sweeney and two other BBC journalists travelling with them would be using the visit to film an undercover documentary. The university identified the two other BBC journalists as Alexander Niakaris and Tomiko Sweeney, John Sweeney's wife, who was involved in organising the trip.
Gaskell said on Sunday the LSE had received complaints from three of the 10 students on the trip, which was organised by a student society of the university, the Grimshaw Club – the student society of the International Relations Department, which dates back to the 1920s. In advance of leaving London, before they had paid for the trip, the students were told on two occasions – individually and later as a group – that an undercover journalist would be accompanying them to North Korea and if this was discovered they could face arrest, detention and deportation, and would be unlikely to be able to return to the country, according to a senior BBC source.
"The BBC has admitted that the group was deliberately misled about the involvement of the BBC. The line that was used was that a BBC journalist would join the visit," he added. "We were told the BBC had undertaken a risk assessment and it had been at the highest level. I would've thought the risk is unacceptable. We clearly have a different view on what is acceptable risk. I think it's potentially extremely dangerous." In Beijing, they were told of Sweeney's identity and that two other BBC journalists were accompanying him, including a cameraman, the insider said. They were not told more for their own benefit in case the ruse was discovered, the source added.
Gaskell said that even if the students had given their consent to Sweeney joining them prior to arriving in North Korea, they might feel very differently if they had found themselves in solitary confinement in the country. The BBC plans to pixelate faces or use other techniques to ensure none of the students can be identified in the Panorama documentary.
He added that the BBC's actions posed less danger to the students who went on the North Korea trip than to his LSE academic colleagues working in other parts of the world. "Some are in Africa, some in China. They may find themselves at considerable risk." Ceri Thomas, BBC News head of programmes, defended the corporation's actions on Radio 4's The World This Weekendon Sunday, saying the Panorama film was "an important piece of public interest journalism".
Sweeney accused the LSE of putting out statements that were "factually inaccurate". He said he had spoken to the students who were on the North Korea trip since their return and the majority did not believe they were misled. "The material fact is that [the LSE students on the trip] were made fully aware of what the risks were if this journalist were to be discovered. The only people we deceived were the North Korean government," he added. "This is a country hidden from view and central to current events."
Thomas told The World This Weekend that the public interest in the story justified the subterfuge used to gain access to North Korea, where foreign journalists cannot get visas but overseas academics and students can. George Gaskell, pro-director of the LSE and professor of social psychology, told The World This Weekend the university had received complaints from three of the 10 students after they returned home.
He said he was satisfied that the students on the trip had been given enough information to give their informed consent. Thomas added that the students were told twice that a BBC journalist would be accompanying them to North Korea and if this was discovered they could face detention – before they set off from London and again before entering the country when they reached Beijing, where they were told of Sweeney's identity. "The BBC has admitted the group was deliberately misled about the involvement of the BBC. The line that was used was that a journalist would join the visit," Gaskell said. "We were told the BBC had undertaken a risk assessment and it had been at the highest level. We clearly have a different view on what is acceptable risk. I think it's potentially extremely dangerous."
Thomas added that those on the North Korea trip were not teenagers just out of the school and that the youngest had consulted their parents before leaving the UK. A number of those on the trip had requested that their identity be protected and the BBC had agreed to pixelate or use other techniques to obscure their features in the Panorama documentary, he said. Gaskell added that the BBC's actions posed less danger to the students who went on the North Korea trip than to his LSE academic colleagues working in other parts of the world. "Some are in Africa, some in China. They may find themselves at considerable risk."
Sweeney spent eight days in North Korea in March with the LSE group. Sweeney accused the LSE of putting out statements that were "factually inaccurate". He said he had spoken to the students who were on the North Korea trip since their return and the majority did not believe they had been misled.
The LSE said it first became aware of the true nature of his visit last Tuesday, 9 April, during a meeting with BBC staff. The BBC and Sweeney's actions have divided opinion in the media. Mark Seddon, the New York bureau chief for al-Jazeera English and a former Tribune editor, criticised Sweeney, asking what protection he or the BBC could have given the LSE students if his true purpose had been uncovered. "The BBC's defence of the editorial decision behind this is woeful," he said.
The university said North Korean authorities alleged that Sweeney described himself on his visa application as an "LSE student, PhD in history" and gave as his address a room number that is used by a member of its academic staff. Ray Snoddy, the former FT and Times editor and ex-presenter of BBC News feedback show NewsWatch, tweeted: "Extraordinary to hear BBC executive say on Radio 4 that the North Korean Panorama undercover filming was worth putting lives at risk for."
Students on the trip reported that their North Korean guides repeatedly referred to Sweeney as "professor" and he went along with this, according to the LSE. Sweeney graduated from the LSE in 1980 with a BSc in government and if he has a PhD, it is not from there, the university added. Jason Wong, one of five student representatives on the LSE's court of governors, said he would be seeking a meeting of the university's governing body after the start of the summer term later this month to revoke Sweeney's alumni status. "He is as unwelcomed to be associated with the LSE as Saif al-Islam Gaddafi."