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

[Jim Hoare]

I am appalled by the action of this reporter and by the BBC’s defence. It is
quite interesting how his BBC colleagues interviewing him and senior staff
have adopted a highly critical tone.

As it happens, one of the students involved had contacted me in advance
about likely issues on the visit and among the things that I said concerned
the North Koreans was people who were journalists pretending to be something
else.

The journalist, Mr Sweeney, has been devious. He knew the danger to which he
was subjecting the students but went ahead. As I understand it, it was only
as they left Beijing that they were told that there were three people who
were journalists by which time they could have done nothing about it.

And for what? As one of the BBC interviewers put it, what did they get that
was any different from tourist accounts? Nothing as far as I can see, though
I will watch the program tomorrow with interest. But Mr Sweeney’s comments
so far and his Daily Mail article do not indicate a dispassionate approach.

Don Kirk may feel that it is OK to go pretending to be something else but I
disagree. When I was in Pyongyang in the early 2000s, a number of BBC
journalists visited – with journalist visas – and saw quite a lot without
being in any way clandestine. My experience of the North Koreans was that
the problem was journalists who pretended to have seen things that they had
not, rather than those who honestly  reported what they had seen.

Jim Hoare

British chargé d’affaires (Head of the British embassy), Pyongyang
2001-2002.

Senior Teaching Fellow, SOAS.

 

  _____  

From: Koreanstudies [mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] On Behalf Of
Keith Howard
Sent: 14 April 2013 21:16
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: [KS] BBC journalists pose as LSE university students in North Korea

 

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; 0207 8984687; 07805 048801

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