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Murdoch’s Times accuses BBC of using bribery and blagging to get stories (bit rich for the LSE’s North Korea mission)

bbc north korea lse

BLAGGING and bribery at the BBC? When the tabloids don it, we’re told it’s tawdry, toxic and worthy of State control. When the BBC does it, do we have a different view? The Times (prop. R. Murdoch) reports:

 The BBC pulled an episode of Panorama shortly before it was due to be broadcast after one of its producers was accused of attempting to bribe a security consultant for information.

The producer allegedly e-mailed Sean Ghent, consultant to Harlequin Property, suggesting he might not be paid by the company and dangling the possibility of work with Panorama.

Harlequin, a developer of luxury homes in the Caribbean, complained to the BBC last Wednesday and the next day the programme, which had been due to air on Monday, was removed from the schedule.
The Radio Times described the programme as “an investigation into financial scandals that could wipe out people’s life savings, including a £250 million Caribbean rental-home development scheme”.

The BBC said yesterday that it had suspended a member of the Panorama team and started disciplinary proceedings. The corporation’s statement came as a prison officer and former police constable were jailed for selling information about a notorious killer and celebrities to The Sun newspaper, owned by News International, which also publishes The Times.

Reader martinseugne writes:

Seems to me that this was public interest journalism. Newspapers are trying too hard to tar everyone else with the same brush. The sort of wide spread newspaper excesses that Leveson investigated had no public interest defence whatsoever.

Who decides what the public interest is? The public should, surely?

The Times follows that story of alleged bribery with the front-page sgtory: “BBC kept students in dark over Korea trip“:

The BBC withheld key information from students, placing them in danger during the making of an undercover documentary in North Korea, according to the London School of Economics.

The group from the LSE were not informed until they had landed in Beijing, en route to Pyongyang, that they would be accompanied by a three-person Panorama film crew posing as scholars and academics. Some may even have been kept in the dark about the scale of the risk they were taking until they were inside North Korea…

The LSE said that the BBC’s alleged deception had placed its academics at risk in sensitive areas around the world because they could be suspected of facilitating undercover journalism…

Asked why the students had only been informed in Beijing that it was a BBC documentary, a spokeswoman said: “The fact that it was a BBC journalist is neither here nor there as it is journalists per se that are banned for North Korea, not the BBC specifically. The students were all explicitly warned about the potential risks of travelling to North Korea with the journalist.”

So that’s blagging, then. And it might be worse because the Times online headlines that story:

Students complain BBC risked their lives in North Korea

But there is no comments in the story from any student saying their life was put at risk. The LSE newspaper, The Beaver, reports:

BBC Programme Uses LSE Students to Gain Access to North Korea Amid Nuclear Tensions WITHOUT Informing the School

Hayley Fenton, Arisa Manawapat, Ira Lorandou, Matthew Worby, and Liam Brown’s story contains no one mention of lives in jeopardy.

The BBC has refused the London School of Economics’ request for a BBC Panorama programme about North Korea to be pulled after revelations that the footage was gained by allegedly misleading and possibly endangering LSE students…

A student who went on the trip, wishing to remain anonymous, told the Beaver that “we were not made aware of the presence of several BBC journalists at the time of the flight to Pyongyang. We were led to believe that John Sweeney was a History professor, although it was later implied that he was not a professor at the LSE.”

John Sweeney… Him! Did not one of the students know who Sweeney was?

John Sweeney, one of the reporters who travelled undercover with the LSE students has refuted the allegations made in the letter, stating that the LSE students “knew and understood what was at stake for them before [the] trip.”…

The LSE argues that the BBC’s unauthorised use of the School’s name could affect whether actual LSE academics can gain access to the hermit kingdom for research purposes. In a statement to students and staff, the LSE claims that its “academics work on aspects of many politically sensitive parts of the world, including by travel to those locations. It is vital that their integrity is taken for granted and their academic freedom preserved.”

Alex Peters-Day, General-Secretary of the LSE Students’ Union told the Beaver that “it was not the BBC’s place to make decisions on behalf of the students on the trip, nor was it the BBC’s place to put at risk all those within the School.”

“What the BBC did was reckless and ethically reprehensible and I am just glad we are not facing a situation where our students are being detained in North Korea.”

The risky BBC risked every student at the entire LSE? Aren’t student supposed to challenge power?

And whose ethics? Didn’t the LSE take money to educate Colonel Gaddafi’s son?

Posted: 15th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)


The Red Chapel: learning to laugh at North Korea

TheRedChapel

THE Red Chapel is a feature documentary shot in North Korea and edited. It was awarded the judges special prize in world documentary cinema at the Sundance Film Festival 2010.

A journalist with no scruples, a spastic, and a comedian travel to North Korea with a mission – to challenge the conditions of the smile in one of the world’s most notorious regimes. The Red Chapel chronicles the amusing and often bizarre encounters between this Danish theatre troupe and their North Korean hosts in a one of a kind, East-meets-West-meets-East look at cultural exchange in the modern world’s last anti-globalist bastion.

Mads Brügger is accompanied by Jacob Nossell and Simon Jul. He says:

“If the North Koreans ever were able to understand the Danish language, they would never be able to understand spastic Danish.”

Cinematical:

The most fascinating character in the film may be Mrs. Pak, the motherly, slightly creepy government functionary assigned to be the caretaker for Brügger and the two young Danish-Koreans who make up the “comedy troupe” that Brügger “directs.” There is nothing to suggest that she is a bad or malevolent person. Her belief in the fundamental greatness of her country and her government, and in the “values” of unity and togetherness used to keep North Koreans in line, is wholehearted and pure. She can’t talk about the Dear Leader without being emotionally overcome. Aside from the mentally ill, I’ve never seen a human being who exists so completely in an alternate universe. It’s terrifying.

And odd:

Mads convinces their escort, Mrs. Pak, to allow him to read a poem in front of the statue of Kim Il-Sung, to which all visiting foreigners are required to pay homage. He claims it’s by a famous Danish worker’s rights writer. It’s not. It goes as follows: “Love is like a pineapple / Sweet and undefinable.”

Flash 10.2 or above Required

To view films, pleaseDirector: Mads BrüggerDP / Editor: René Sascha JohannsenProducer: Peter Engel,Ex Prod: Peter ÅlbækZentropa 2009

Posted: 12th, April 2013 | In: Film | Comment


Is North Korea’s London mission the world’s most humdrum embassy?

HYON Hak Bong is North Korea’s ambassador to the Britain. The embassy is a seven bedroom house in Ealing, west London. Is it the most humdrum, average embassy in the country?

Signs are that Bong had left the house. The North Korean leaders have written:

The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermonuclear war  … North Korea does not want to see foreigners in South Korea fall victim to the war. All foreign institutions and enterprises and foreigners, including tourists, are requested to take measures for shelter and evacuation in advance for their safety.

Where is Mr Bong?

North Korean Embassy - stock

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Posted: 10th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


North Korean children sing about shooting ‘the American bastards’

North Korea Daily Life

BARBARA Demick book on North Korea, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea” is a good read. One passage stand outs. The Norther Korean kinder are taught to sing a song called “Shoot the Yankee Bastards”. One verse goes:

Our enemies are the American bastards
Who are trying to take over our beautiful fatherland.
With guns that I make with my own hands
I will shoot them. BANG, BANG, BANG.

American kids can buy their guns in Walmart, ready made…

Posted: 10th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment


North Korea vows nuclear war: panicky West sends for Photoshop

kim jong-un

NORTH Korean state television has an announcement:

“We will cope with the US nuclear threat with a merciless nuclear attack. And we will face this infiltration with a justified all-out-war. This is our military and our people’s unchangeable stance. The US and those followers should clearly know that everything is different in the era of respected Kim Jong-un.”

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Posted: 5th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment


North Korean television features this magnificent report on American poverty (video)

North Korea Daily Life

TO North Korea, where we interrupt this broadcast on rocket launches and flag waving to tell you about the sickness in modern day America.

The voiceover is magnificent:

“The American Red Cross provides Americans with curtains – the cotton made in North Korea”

“There are no birds in the trees…”

“A former Republican candidate for Oregon is now having to get coffee made of snow from these trucks… Many Americans have to live like this daily… The weather is freezing, but the hot snow tastes nice… These telephones no longer work – there is no-one to call…. Some lucky people are on bed on floors… Huddled together, the poor, the lonely, the homosexuals…”

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Posted: 13th, March 2013 | In: TV & Radio | Comment


North Korea welcomes a little Un: Ri Sol Ju gives birth to future despot

REJOICE! North Korea has new future leader for its hereditary Communist dictatorship. Kim Jong Un’s wife, Ri Sol Ju, has given birth to a baby. Yep, he is the little un.

Reports are that the child has already been seen banging his fists on table, screaming, demanding and being utterly unreasonble. Says one insider: “He has the makings of a top notch despot.”

 

Posted: 5th, March 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


Nuclear North Korea aims all its missiles at the USA

THE email from CNN tells us:

“North Korea said Thursday that it plans to carry out a ‘high-level nuclear test’ and further long-range rocket launches, all of which it said are ‘aimed at the U.S. – The statement from the North’s National Defense Commission was carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.”

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Posted: 24th, January 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment


Marijuana is free for North Korea military (British made do with LSD)

TO North Korea, where the marijuana runs wild and free:

NK NEWS receives regular reports from visitors returning from North Korea, who tell us of marijuana plants growing freely along the roadsides, from the northern port town of Chongjin, right down to the streets of Pyongyang, where it is smoked freely and its sweet scent often catches your nostrils unannounced. Our sources are people we know who work inside North Korea and make regular trips in and out of the country.

There is no taboo around pot smoking in the country—many residents know the drug exists and have smoked it. In North Korea, the drug goes by the name of ip tambae, or “leaf tobacco.” It is reported to be especially popular amongst young soldiers in the North Korean military.

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Posted: 19th, January 2013 | In: Flashback, Reviews | Comment


In photos: Ryugyong Health Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea

AT the Ryugyong Health Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea – a  health complex along the Taedong River, which includes saunas, baths, a gym, restaurants, a table tennis center and salons – hair styles reflect the wave of change. Oddly, the Haircut sported by Supreme Being Kim Jong-Un is not on offer to the masses. It is his signature chop:


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Posted: 17th, December 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)


Excited North Korean TV news anchor hails launch of Unha 3 rocket

THIS is how you read the news. You do away with the ticks, head tilts and the eyes narrowing used by BBC presenters to showcase their personal like or dislike of stories; you just go for it. This is a special news bulletin from North Korea. The presenter is announcing launch of an Unha 3 rocket carrying a satellite. Glory be!

Posted: 12th, December 2012 | In: TV & Radio | Comment


Unicorn found in North Korea

WHAT news from North Korea? Amid stirring stories of revolutionary struggle by peoples of the Supreme People’s Assembly – “Kim Jong Il’s Feats Praised by Ecuadorian Library” and “Prolific Mothers Awarded Title of Labor Hero” – we learn that in the land of vigour and might dwell unicorns:
Lair of King Tongmyong’s Unicorn Reconfirmed in DPRK

Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) — Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668).

The lair is located 200 meters from the Yongmyong Temple in Moran Hill in Pyongyang City. A rectangular rock carved with words “Unicorn Lair” stands in front of the lair. The carved words are believed to date back to the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392).

Jo Hui Sung, director of the Institute, told KCNA:

“Korea’s history books deal with the unicorn, considered to be ridden by King Tongmyong, and its lair. The Sogyong (Pyongyang) chapter of the old book ‘Koryo History’ (geographical book), said: Ulmil Pavilion is on the top of Mt. Kumsu, with Yongmyong Temple, one of Pyongyang’s eight scenic spots, beneath it. The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn. The old book ‘Sinjungdonggukyojisungnam’ (Revised Handbook of Korean Geography) complied in the 16th century wrote that there is a lair west of Pubyok Pavilion in Mt. Kumsu. The discovery of the unicorn lair, associated with legend about King Tongmyong, proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo Kingdom.”

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Posted: 2nd, December 2012 | In: Strange But True | Comment


North Korea: ‘Labor Hero Awarded to Lathe No. 26 at Pyongyang Textile Machine Factory’

TO North Korea, where The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has awarded a medal to a metal lathe once used by dearly departed Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il:

Title of Labor Hero Awarded to Lathe No. 26 at Pyongyang Textile Machine Factory

Pyongyang, October 4 (KCNA) — The DPRK awarded the title of labor hero of the DPRK and the gold medal (hammer and sickle) and the First Class of the Order of National Flag to the lathe No. 26 at the Pyongyang Textile Machine Factory.

Lathe No. 26 is the historic lathe which leader Kim Jong Il personally operated when he came to this factory for production practice during his days of study at Kim Il Sung University.

He set a noble example of equipment and technological management and raised the torch of the model machine movement.

That machine had operated in full capacity over last more than 50 years and was modernized as CNC lathe. The lathe has greatly contributed to the building of a thriving nation by processing a large number of parts needed for the production of textile machines and custom-built equipment for major projects.

A decree of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly on awarding the title of labor hero to it was issued on Thursday.

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Posted: 11th, October 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment


In Photos: North Korea National Day 2012

IN Photos: North Korea National Day 2012. It was great. There were the synchronised dancing and bowing, the coloured cards the stadium crowd flips over and over so that they look like a bit like homemade computer tablets (see London Olympics). It’s Pyongyang 2012. It’s one nation under the flag of half a nation:

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Posted: 10th, September 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment


Glasgow Rangers buy 11 South Korean women footballers – North Korea weeps

IT was the kind of mistake you might suppose the North Korean would roll with. When the second match in group G of the Olympics women’s football tournament began in Glasgow, the boffins in the big screen booth heralded the arrival of the North Korean women’s football team with the South Korean flag.

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Posted: 26th, July 2012 | In: Sports | Comment (1)


Kim Jong-un has theme song that defies anyone to stop demanding victory

 Kim Jong-un has Onwards Toward the Final Victory to mark his steps.

The tune begins as a answer to Go West before slipping into hectoring offcuts from Richard Rodgers Oscar Hammerstein’s Oklahoma. Onwards Towards Final Victory!

And on they go. And on.

Victory seems a hell of a long way off as the brass section compels you to move on and on and on. But as you move the music seems only to get louder. No quarter is given.

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Posted: 7th, July 2012 | In: Politicians | Comment


Insult of the Day: North Korea says South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has 2MB of knowledge

INSULT of the Day: North Korea’s official media says South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is “human scum” and an “underwit with 2MB of knowledge”. As any fool knowl, in North Korea, they can now store up to a massive 8MM of knowledge in the country’s big computer…

Which reminds us: it’s time for ‘Where’s Kim Jong Un?’. Can you spot the baby-faced North Koren depost in these photos of his country enjoying jubilant times?

 

 

 

Posted: 25th, April 2012 | In: Politicians | Comment


North Korea retaliates over earthy rocket – and play Where’s Kim Jong Un?

NORTH Korea has today said that it will “retaliate” in the face of condemnation from the international community over it’s failed rocket launch. They have back-tracked and refused to let inspectors from the Atomic Inspection Agency return to the country. The US has also cancelled planned food aid to the impoverished state.

As retaliation goes, it’s right up wither aiming a falling rocket at your foot.

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Posted: 18th, April 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)


Kim Jong Un talks for 20 minutes ordering his lunch

TO North Korea, where Kim Jong Un is talking to the massed ranks of uniformed subjects in Pyongyang. It’s the occasion of the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather and North Korea’s founding President, now deceased.

The crowd hope Mr Kim Jong Un manages to be there for his centennial, chanting:

“May he live 10,000 years.”

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Posted: 15th, April 2012 | In: Politicians | Comment


North Korea – fantastic photos of everyday life in the secretive state

EVER wonder what life is like for everyday people in North Korea? Well, keep wondering. The Associated Press’s David Guttenfelder was among journalists given a tour of Heaven on Earth. He was shown what the State wanted him to see. So. What you get is clue as to what the State thinks is edgy and go-ahead, like the woman reading a book as she about to cross a road, an apple juice factory, ten pin bowling, a pet fish swimming in a tank on a table inside a Chinese restaurant at a hotel in Pyongyang, a missile by a huge soldier, a factory making cotton thread, a traffic warden directing no traffic and a huge choir singing on the steps of a government building. MP3 players, cars, nylon, eBooks, hygiene and Flashmobs are soooo last season….

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A pet fish swims in a tank on a table inside a Chinese restaurant at a hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea on Thursday, April 5, 2012. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Posted: 11th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment


Bears weep for Kim Jong-il – North Korea’s Generalissimo

HOW did you mark what would have been the 70th birthday of North Korea’s Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il? Well, his son and heir Kim Jong-un and other top knobs stood by a massive picture of of the Dear Leader in Pyonyang. There were TV specials, flowers, fireworks, military marches and a massive bronze statue of the Dear Leader and his dad Kim Il-sung sat on his ‘n’ his horses. Kim Jong-il also scored a new title. He is and will be the “Generalissimo”.

And that as not all:

The Guardian: “Events on Wednesday included an international skating show and synchronised swimming. Both opened with mournful odes to Kim Jong-il and ended with a new song for his son: ‘We Will Defend General Kim Jong-un at the Risk of Our Lives.'”

Sing. SING! SING!!!!!

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Posted: 17th, February 2012 | In: Politicians | Comment


How do you know if Kim Jong-Un’s dead?

WAS Kim Jong Un murdered this morning? Chinese Twitter Weibo says yes, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was murdered today at the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Sources say: “North Korean leader [Kim Jong-Un was killed] in Beijing in February 10 2012, at 2 o’clock and 45 minutes. Unknown persons broke into his residence shot and were subsequently shot and killed by the bodyguard.”

That bodyguard is now beefing up on lard and pies to replce Kim Jong-In. Soon, rumours will be undone by pictures of Kim Jong-Un pointing at things in North Korea’s people processing plants.

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Posted: 10th, February 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment


North Korea update: Kim Jong Un’s a ‘joke’ says his big brother

KIM Jong Nam, who lives in exile, says his little brother and North Korea’s newst leader, Kim Jong Un, is a “joke“. Nam is the illegitimate child son of Sung Hae Rim, the North Korean film star who was Kim Jong Il’s mistress. Nam was raised in Switzerland and has never met Un. Is he jealous? Maybe. But let’s see what Kim Jon Un has been up to since being made Supreme.

Redong,the North Korea news source reports:

Jane 16: Scientists Dedicating Their Time to Research

See the photo (and the boffin at the back is a prototype).

Jan 16:

A new duck farm was built on the bank of the River Chungman in Usi County, Jagang Province. The three-storied farm has computerized egg sterilization and hatching room, duck breed and reserve duck rooms and rooms for fattening duck. They are distributed in such a way as to raise pigs by use of duck excrement.

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Posted: 19th, January 2012 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


Kim Jong Un leads North Korea into ‘Socialist fairylands’

WHAT news of socialism and North Korea, now under the rainbow of Kim Jong Un?

North Korea vowed Sunday to stage an all-out drive for prosperity as it unites behind new leader Kim Jong Un, ushering in 2012 with promises to resolve food shortages, bolster its military and defend Kim Jong Il’s young son “unto death” …

North Korea said it would boost its military, and boasted that it was “at the epochal point of opening the gates of a thriving country,” with parts of Pyongyang “turned into socialist fairylands.”

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Posted: 2nd, January 2012 | In: Politicians | Comment


Did Chinese Watermelon Make Shun Shun The Dog Grow Four Ears?

CAN any of you guess where a dog with four ears has been found? No. Not North Korea – although trade in four-eared dogs between the land that time forgot and China shold be brisk.

Shun Shun is the four-eared dog found in China, a place blessed with the unusual.

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Posted: 21st, July 2011 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)