BBC under fire for using students as ‘shield’ in N Korea

THREE students have complained after their university study trip to North Korea was used as cover for a BBC documentary on the communist state.
John SweeneyJohn Sweeney
John Sweeney

Professor George Gaskell, pro-director at the London School of Economics, said the university authorities were unaware until last week that the BBC had used a 10-person party as cover for an eight-day trip by Panorama to the country.

The professor said, had veteran journalist John Sweeney been caught, the party – which included an 18-year-old student – could have found themselves held in solitary confinement in a North Korean prison.

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Yesterday, the BBC’s head of programmes Ceri Thomas implied the students had been paid for their co-operation when he said “no money changed hands” until the corporation had talked to them twice before they left London. He also admitted the students were not told about a two-man film crew on the trip until they arrived in Beijing, en route to Pyongyang.

The LSE is calling for the BBC to pull the documentary, which is due to be broadcast tonight.

Professor Gaskell said it could jeopardise the work of its academics who are working in sensitive countries around the world, including China.

The BBC has already agreed to pixelate the images of the three students who have complained.

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Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The World this Weekend, Professor Gaskell said: “We were told the BBC had undertaken a risk assessment and that it had been approved at the highest level.

“Now LSE believes that any reasonable assessor of risk, or indeed any parent contemplating their son or daughter going on such a trip with the involvement of the BBC, would have thought the risks quite unacceptable.

“The chairman of our council, Peter Sutherland, wrote to Lord Patten (chairman of BBC Trust) and said that in view of this deception the LSE received an unqualified apology from the BBC.

“I think there is less danger to students than there is to my colleagues. Some of my colleagues at the present are in Africa, China and various other sensitive countries. If there independence and integrity is challenged, they may find themselves in considerable risk.”

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But Mr Thomas said the documentary was a “very, very important piece of public interest journalism” and the only people deceived in the making of the film were members of the North Korean government.

Alex Peters-Day, general secretary of the LSE Students’ Union, accused the BBC of using the students as “human shields”. She said it had put at risk future trips by LSE students, telling the BBC News channel Mr Sweeney’s actions were “reckless”.

Talks offer: Page 14.

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