Did Panorama N Korea report justify risk to LSE students?

QUESTIONS are being asked about the lack of fresh insights provided by last night's Panorama report from North Korea, as it emerged that some of the students who provided cover for the BBC team have been threatened by Pyongyang.

The BBC's director general, Tony Hall, defended the programme as in the public interest and rejected calls by the London School of Economics to shelve it. But some critics say reporter John Sweeney's film failed to shed new light on the pariah regime and questioned if the risks taken by the LSE students were justified.

In a review of Panorama: North Korea Undercover, The Guardian's Sam Wollaston says Sweeney – who posed as an LSE academic during the eight-day trip – failed to turn up much about North Korea that wasn't already known. "The interesting analysis and insight comes from outside the country, from escapees over the border in South Korea and from experts and analysts," he writes. Wollaston points out that the programme's most harrowing footage – of a North Korean prison camp – was obtained from YouTube, and says Sweeney and his team failed to find out "how much of the [regime's] sabre rattling is serious".

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Wollaston acknowledges that the covert reporting was at times "very courageous" – particularly the footage shot inside a circus where most of the audience were officers in the Korean People's Army. But the film's conclusion, that North Korea is a "secretive, dangerous place, with a brainwashed people, ruled by fear and the cult of personality", is hardly new.

Reactions on social media to last night's programme ranged from high praise – "outstanding" – to a criticism that it was "thin" and the observation that "John Sweeney booked a holiday then filmed it".

The BBC pixellated the faces of the LSE students in last night's programme, but some of them have received threats from the dictatorship to publish their personal data, The Independent reports. Some of the students fear their careers could be harmed after it emerged they took part in the secret filming.

Meanwhile, Universities UK, a body representing 100 institutions, has added its voice to criticism of the BBC. The organisation said the Panorama film may have damaged "universities' reputations overseas", which rely on transparency.