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

[Su-kyoung Hwang]

I am afraid that BBC may try to use negative publicity to advertise and
sell their program. I wonder if there is anything new or mysterious about
NK from a tourist perspective that we have not seen yet. Pretty much
everything is on Youtube and Dailymotion, including a wide variety of
home-made tourist recordings with lots of commentaries, documentaries, and
stuffs that NK put out for us to see. It's just disgraceful that BBC
reporters had to be so sneaky and unprofessional.

Regards,

SK


On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 11:19 PM, Ruediger Frank <
ruediger.frank at univie.ac.at> wrote:

>  Dear all,
> I find this behavior highly unethical and irresponsible, for a number of
> reasons.
> In addition to the many points made already, let's not be too
> self-centered. The feelings of LSE students and potential aid workers are
> important, but one affected group we have ignored so far. There were *North
> Koreans* responsible for that trip: folks from KNTO (the tourism
> organization) and others. They will now, away from the public eye and not
> protected by a Western passport, face allegations of not having done their
> job properly. I have always been deeply annoyed by the fact that such
> allegedly "heroic" behavior by Westerners - seriosly, what can happen to us
> in the worst case? - is taking place at the expense of those nameless
> people who are left behind in NK and who will have to bear all the wrath of
> the regime. We talk about human rights in NK and so on in our Sunday
> speeches, but in fact we don't give a bloody damn about the people there.
> This is disgusting.
> Besides, the NK state has also been lied to. Such behavior enforces
> stereotypes about Westerners who cannot be trusted. Not that anyone would
> care, but I wanted to at least mention that.
> Great, good job. And all that for stuff (I suppose) that I and 1000 others
> have filmed again and again before? Wow.
> I have decided not to give any interviews to BBC anymore. Well, they'll
> survive.
> Prof. Rudiger Frank, Vienna
> PS: I forgot the tour operator, most likely Koryo tours. Their business is
> not going to get easier. But why should the BBC care? It's in the holy name
> of truth (about others), isn't it. Collateral damage, so what.
>
>
>
>
> on Sonntag, 14. April 2013 at 22:15 you 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; 0207 8984687; 07805 048801
>
>
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