[KS] BBC journalists pose as LSE university students in North Korea

[James B. Lewis]

I heard this story in disbelief. The spokesman claimed that the students 
knew about the risk and agreed beforehand, but that they only knew about 
one reporter masquarading as a student and not about the other two, and 
I paraphrase, 'for their own protection'. There's a severe dis-connect 
from reality on the part of the BBC, and I'm sad to say that they have 
now joined the ranks of the News of the World. Was the Levenson Inquiry 
a complete waste of time?

Yours,
JB Lewis
______________________________________
On 14/04/2013 21:15, Keith Howard wrote:
> I trust that some list members have heard of the lead news story today 
> on the BBC, about three BBC journalists who accompanied students from 
> the LSE – under the disguise of themselves claiming to be students. A 
> BBC spokesman has claimed that to film the documentary (due to be 
> broadcast tomorrow), it was worthwhile putting students at risk (Can 
> this be right? – it was what their spokesman said on Radio 4 this 
> afternoon).
>
> See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22144667.
>
> I would be interested in colleagues' reactions.
>
> Prof. Keith Howard
> SOAS, University of London
> Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG, UK
> kh at soas.ac.uk <mailto:kh at soas.ac.uk>; 0207 8984687; 07805 048801

-- 
Dr. James B. Lewis
President of the British Association for Korean Studies
University Lecturer in Korean History
and Fellow of Wolfson College
Oriental Institute
University of Oxford
Pusey Lane
Oxford,  OX1 2LE
United Kingdom
Email: jay.lewis at orinst.ox.ac.uk
Tel: +44-(0)1865-278200
http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/ea/korean/index.html

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