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BBC News Head of News Programs Ceri Thomas said on a BBC News program Sunday that the students were given the information needed to give informed consent to the increased risk of traveling with journalists who did not have authorization to work in North Korea. He said, however, that the students were told roughly a month before the trip that there would be "a journalist" traveling with them but were later told, once they were en route to North Korea, that there would be three journalists who would be conducting undercover filming for TV. Thomas said the students may have been under the impression that a print journalist, not a three-person TV crew, was going to be involved. He said BBC would air the documentary despite LSE's concerns because of high public interest in the show. "It is disappointing for us that LSE has chosen to make this public," he said. "We would have kept them out of this altogether. They could have avoided the publicity, and we think that would have lowered the reputational risk." He said BBC executives felt that if the deception was discovered the students likely would have been deported, but he admitted he could not "categorically" rule out the possibility that their lives might have been at risk. BBC press officials said senior executives would not discuss the matter but might issue further statements. The BBC's action sparked concerns that the use of a British academic research trip as a cover for a clandestine TV reporting venture might undermine the ability of researchers to operate overseas. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said BBC must understand how its actions might hurt research institutions. She said the BBC may have not only put students in harm's way but also damaged the reputations of British universities. "We regret the BBC's approach," she said. A BBC story about the trip says Sweeney and a two-person crew that included his wife spent "eight days undercover" in North Korea.
[Associated
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