Panorama's Inaccuracies - comments by a JISGE member

I have just endured yet another anti-DPRK propaganda film by the BBC (Panorama). I list the following points where the documentary was inaccurate:

• Kim Jong Un is described as a brutal despotic leader but in reality he is held in the greatest respect by all Koreans for advancing the Juche idea, improving living standards, Education standards and the National economy.

• The presenter stresses the point that the students of the university have not heard of Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson is not famous in North Korea because Korean culture has not been polluted with Western input, unlike in south Korea.

• The film makes the ridiculous claim that the DPRK persecutes Christians. In reality under the article 68 of The Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, religious freedom is guaranteed.

• The film suggests that the students are unhappy. The film contradicts itself by interviewing a Korean student who states he is happy because the government guarantees him a job, a home and all necessities for life.

• Unlike in the West, Korean students appear to be very work focused and not fazed by social media sites.

• Random satellite images show an alleged concentration camp but there was no evidence that this camp exists, apart from this documentary incorrectly stating that it does.

• The documentary makes a statement that the students are dissatisfied with the government but all students have a keen sense of national pride in the interviews.

• The film states that the number of Koreans attending Mass is small. This is because Korea does not have a large Christian population or a long history of Christianity.

• The film finished on a part showing all students working together to keep the University clean and tidy. If the public understood the successful Juche Idea they would see that the people of Korea have been taught to work together for the good of the nation.