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| BBC to apologise to LSE over John Sweeney's North Korea documentary | BBC to apologise to LSE over John Sweeney's North Korea documentary |
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| The BBC is to apologise to the London School of Economics after John Sweeney's North Korea documentary, which used a student trip as cover to gain access to the secretive communist state, was criticised by the BBC Trust for breaching the corporation's editorial guidelines. | The BBC is to apologise to the London School of Economics after John Sweeney's North Korea documentary, which used a student trip as cover to gain access to the secretive communist state, was criticised by the BBC Trust for breaching the corporation's editorial guidelines. |
| There was "strong public interest" in the BBC broadcasting Sweeney's Panorama documentary, North Korea Undercover, the BBC Trust ruled, but also concluded that a number of editorial guidelines had been breached. | There was "strong public interest" in the BBC broadcasting Sweeney's Panorama documentary, North Korea Undercover, the BBC Trust ruled, but also concluded that a number of editorial guidelines had been breached. |
| The production team on the controversial Panorama episode, broadcast on 15 April 2013, "failed to consider a number of important issues and risks, and to deal with them appropriately", according to the BBC Trust's editorial standards committee (ESC) report, published on Monday. | The production team on the controversial Panorama episode, broadcast on 15 April 2013, "failed to consider a number of important issues and risks, and to deal with them appropriately", according to the BBC Trust's editorial standards committee (ESC) report, published on Monday. |
| Panorama: North Korea Undercover hit the headlines last year after some of the LSE students who accompanied Sweeney and his wife, Tomiko Newson, on a trip to North Korea claimed they only became aware that BBC journalists were embedded with their group once they got to the country's capital, Pyongyang. | Panorama: North Korea Undercover hit the headlines last year after some of the LSE students who accompanied Sweeney and his wife, Tomiko Newson, on a trip to North Korea claimed they only became aware that BBC journalists were embedded with their group once they got to the country's capital, Pyongyang. |
| The director of the university complained about the risks to which they had been exposed, along with the father of one of the students. The BBC said on Monday it would be writing to both to apologise. | The director of the university complained about the risks to which they had been exposed, along with the father of one of the students. The BBC said on Monday it would be writing to both to apologise. |
| The BBC Trust said in a statement: "The provision of information to the students who took part in the trip was insufficient and inadequate; and the use of the LSE's address details on the programme teams' visa applications was inappropriate." | The BBC Trust said in a statement: "The provision of information to the students who took part in the trip was insufficient and inadequate; and the use of the LSE's address details on the programme teams' visa applications was inappropriate." |
| It went on: "The BBC failed to consider a number of important issues and risks, and failed to deal with them appropriately. In particular, the provision of information to the students who took part in the trip was insufficient and inadequate, and meant the daughter of the complainant did not possess the knowledge necessary to give informed consent." | It went on: "The BBC failed to consider a number of important issues and risks, and failed to deal with them appropriately. In particular, the provision of information to the students who took part in the trip was insufficient and inadequate, and meant the daughter of the complainant did not possess the knowledge necessary to give informed consent." |
| BBC guidelines state that contributors to a programme, "should be in possession of the knowledge that is necessary for a reasoned decision to take part" and while there is an allowance for "verbal consent", written consent should be obtained "wherever practical". | BBC guidelines state that contributors to a programme, "should be in possession of the knowledge that is necessary for a reasoned decision to take part" and while there is an allowance for "verbal consent", written consent should be obtained "wherever practical". |
| Alison Hastings, chair of the ESC, said: "Discovering stories in difficult or dangerous places is one of the BBC's greatest strengths. There was a real public interest in making this programme in North Korea but, in the trust's view, the BBC failed to ensure that all the young adults Panorama travelled with were sufficiently aware of any potential risks to enable them to give informed consent. This was a serious failing, and the BBC is right to apologise to the complainants." | Alison Hastings, chair of the ESC, said: "Discovering stories in difficult or dangerous places is one of the BBC's greatest strengths. There was a real public interest in making this programme in North Korea but, in the trust's view, the BBC failed to ensure that all the young adults Panorama travelled with were sufficiently aware of any potential risks to enable them to give informed consent. This was a serious failing, and the BBC is right to apologise to the complainants." |
| The BBC Trust also said that "someone independent" should have been leading the trip, as "Tomiko Newson (who was the trip organiser and tour leader) had a conflict of interest which was further compounded when she became employed by the BBC, and that the BBC should have ensured that someone independent of it was there to lead the trip". | |
| In addition: "The use of the LSE's address details on the North Korea visa applications was inappropriate and this, combined with a number of other factors … risked linking the LSE with the trip and resulted in unfair treatment to the LSE." | |
| For the programme Sweeney spent eight days undercover in North Korea. Foreign journalists are not allowed to get visas to enter North Korea but overseas academics and students are. | |
| Sweeney went with the LSE group on a trip ostensibly arranged by the Grimshaw Club – the student society of the university's international relations department. | |
| They pretended to be part of the trip, accompanying the students and filming as they travelled around the country on an organised tour given by North Korean guides. | |
| The father of one of the students, referred to only as "student x" by the BBC Trust, wrote to director general Tony Hall on 2 April 2013 – shortly after his daughter returned from the trip to North Korea and almost two weeks before the programme was broadcast. | |
| In the finding released by the BBC Trust it said the complainant "alleged the BBC had failed to obtain informed consent from the students who travelled to North Korea and the risk that Mr X considered had been caused to them and the guides as a result of the BBC's deception". | |
| The trust added: "Mr X referred to eight fairness and privacy Guidelines in his letter. He also attached a letter from student X, asking for footage of her and photos and video taken by her not to be used in the programme, and raising concerns about the possible harm caused to the North Korean guides who accompanied the group." | |
| The matter was referred up to the executive editor for TV current affairs, Clive Edwards, who told the complainant his daughter would not be used in the film but "said that the deception used to film the programme was justified by the public interest and proportionate". | |
| However, the father of the student was dissatisfied and wrote again to Hall on 5 April, asking him to "satisfy himself before broadcast of the programme 'that the BBC behaved properly in approving the deception of these LSE students' [and] reiterated that student X had not provided informed consent, because she had not known about various facts including: the fact that three journalists were travelling instead of one, the journalists were television journalists rather than print journalists and that the BBC was involved. Mr X also complained about the risk posed to student X and the other students as a result of the trip". | |
| LSE chairman, Peter Sutherland also wrote to Hall asking him to shelve the documentary, but it was rejected and the programme was broadcast on 15 April. | |
| The day before it was broadcast Ceri Thomas, BBC News head of programmes, defended the corporation's actions on Radio 4's The World This Weekend on Sunday, saying the Panorama film was "an important piece of public interest journalism". | |
| Thomas added: "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." | |
| On 25 April Hall admitted to MPs that it would have been better to get written consent from the students. | |
| Hall told the Commons culture, media and sport select committee on 25 April that he had reviewed the programme before transmission. | |
| He said: "The process we went through in two sets of meetings and a third in Beijing was that students were aware of the risks and were content to go along with what was being proposed, although one or two now say they weren't." | |
| Hall added that he was "satisfied with what I have been told and the accounts I have been given by the team, by the head of news programmes and also by the director of news", but that lessons had been learnt about consents. | |
| The same day, student X's father wrote another letter to Hall, alleging that, "senior BBC executives had made numerous public statements after the programme was broadcast that were either untrue or deceptive and designed to mislead the public as to the true nature of the BBC's involvement". | |
| They included claims that the "trip would have happened without BBC involvement … that the corporation became involved with the trip after the students had signed up … that the BBC briefed the students … that the students supported Sweeney's deception [and] that they paid for the trip after receiving two briefings". | |
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