BBC's Hall defends risk in North Korea Panorama row
A decision to withhold some information from a group of students visiting North Korea with BBC Panorama reporters secretly embedded was backed by a risk assessment, the corporation's director general has said.
Lord Hall said that the report's findings suggested that brief "detention and deportation" were the biggest risks faced by the students and production team and that the programme was in the public interest. However, he told MPs that he had no plans to publish the risk assessment.
The students, from the London School of Economics, were aware that one journalist would be travelling with them, but some have subsequently complained that they were not told enough in advance to make an informed decision.
Lord Hall and BBC Trust chairman, Chris Patten, were answering questions from the Culture Select Committee on a rage of issues, including senior executive pay and the fallout of the Jimmy Savile scandal and subsequent Pollard Review.
25 Apr 2013