THE NAB HALLOWEEN SPECIAL NONA THE VAMPIRE INTERVIEWS KEN LIVING-DEAD
Beaver “Not a Fit and Proper Issue 816 | 28.10.14
the
newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union
Person to Run the LSE” Sweeney Slams Calhoun
• Questions opaque Chinese state funding • Attacks LSE handling of North Korea doc • Criticises Putin meeting and says Calhoun ‘morally dead from neck up’ over tweet Jon Allsop Executive Editor Alexander Fyfe Managing Editor TELEVISION JOURNALIST John Sweeney has slammed the Director of the LSE over his “ridiculous” decision to call for last year’s Panorama documentary ‘North Korea Undercover’ to be pulled, his stance on China and the School’s lack of openness about its funding from the Chinese state. In an exclusive interview with The Beaver, the investigative journalist and LSE alumnus claimed Professor Craig Calhoun “is not a fit and proper person to be running an elite university like the LSE”. In addition, he criticised Professor Calhoun for calling for the programme not to be broadcast and for attending a private meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with business leaders and journalists. He also gave his personal account of the ‘North Korea Undercover’ affair, offering his strongest refutation yet to the accusation that students on the trip were not given the opportunity to consent to his involve-
ment. Mr Sweeney’s post at Panorama is in the process of being closed but he currently still works for the BBC and doorstepped Russian President Vladimir Putin in September for Panorama. He spoke to The Beaver in a personal capacity as an LSE alumnus. At the height of the row about ‘North Korea Undercover’, Professor Calhoun tweeted that the “BBC story put LSE students at danger but seems to have found no new information and only shown what North Korea wants tourists to see”. Mr Sweeney disputed Professor Calhoun’s suggestion that the programme had little journalistic value, saying that it was important for “anyone who cares about free speech. Our Panorama showed interviews with three North Korean defectors. This is not tourist fare but new information on the tyranny which Professor Calhoun professed to ignore.” On China, Mr Sweeney referenced a passage in Professor Calhoun’s book, ‘Neither Gods Nor Emperors’ on the Tiananmen Square massacre, in which the LSE Director writes: ‘‘The official line is not simply
a blatant lie. It is a historical construction, an interpretation of events not altogether different in kind from those that give the student protesters martyrs’ crowns or saints’ halos. It makes sense, within its own frame of reference and evaluation, of a great many empirical claims. It is, however, a construction in which a peaceful protest is a “riot” because it disrupts “public order,” which in turn constitutes docile adherence to the wishes of Party leaders… It is intended to promote a favourable view of the military and the government and to minimize both the killing of civilians and the plausibility of the protest. But as a more or less complete interpretation, factual wherever possible, it has much more potential for influencing Chinese popular understandings and history than a simple lie or denial.” (pp.150-1). He also referenced Professor Calhoun’s assertion that: “the preponderance of evidence suggests that if any students were killed in Tiananmen Square that night, they were few… Very little carnage, if any, seems actually to have taken place in the Square. That millions of people around were virtually sure there had been, and almost thought they had seen it, was due largely to the deceptiveness of television reportage and editing.” (p.139).
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The Beaver met John Sweeney near Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens
Debating NUS Disaffiliation Saw Swee Hock Grand Opening Pages 8-9 Pages 4-5