THE REAL BANGKOK HILTON

BBC World are broadcastig the documentary "The Real Bangkok Hilton" on Saturday 11th Sept on BBC World at 15:10 and again at 19:10, Thai time, GTM+7 (about life in Bangkwang prison).

This was on in England when i went for my Holidays in July.

I taped it and showed it to some of my Thai friends when i came back to Bangkok.

What a farse, they could do nothing but laugh.

The parts of the prison that they showed had been nicely repainted, all new writing in ENGLISH as well as Thai, and they only showed you what they wanted you to see.

They made ot look like Heaven.

All the people interviewed where, English, and you could tell that they had been warned what to say and definately not what they wanted to say.

Anyway, you make up your own opinions once you have watched it.

angie

I saw it in England too. I wrote a precise of it somewhere on this forum.

My understanding is that the BBC Team got to see everything except the 'dangerous prisoner' section - where a guard walked around with the camera on for them. If it was a Thai film, then I could see your point, but the BBC are used to this stuff, and never allow themselves to get sideroaded. I saw a film by the BBC a while back in North Korea. Same sort of thing as you're suggesting, the authorities took them to the places they wanted to be reported, and disallowed the people and places that they did not. So, the Team slipped their 'guides' a couple of evernings and paid a driver to take them to see the other bits and other people.

The BBC, bring the BBC, can get away with this sort of thing. It reall;y is world news if a Team from the beeb suddenly goes missing while on location.

They aired it all good and bad, and where fairly unbiased.

The prison may well have been prettied up, but then that is good for the prisoners. They did not only talk to Brits. They talked to a Nigerian on death row who stabbed a prisoner and guard several times in the prison. They talked to a Canadian. They talked to several Thais. They also talked to the Abbot of the prison temple, who takes it apon himself to give last rights and take care of uncliamed ashes from the executed - would he lie?

The thing is, no one really knows unless they have been inside it. I don't mean in visiting where you stand and shout across a gap, I mean in it. We all see movies showing how bad it is, but this was the first time the prison has ever been filmed inside, so the images came from the director. Do you believe the exprisoners, or the families of prisoner that are inside and want to get help for them.

I think it would be far worse in a Burmese, North Korean, Indian or Chinese jail, let alone African or South American perhaps. Prison is not supposed to be nice, just as humane as is possible given the situation. I remain impressed from a 3rd world standview.

I used to think the same about the BBC news, except for when I lived in Bahrain. There was some local unrest and I watched a report from Manama where the reporter discussed not being able to leave the hotel, tanks driving down the streets etc. Looked bad, except that I worked in an office block on the street he showed and would have noticed a tank, the soldiers he claimed were patrolling the streets were actually the security personnel all banks in the middle east employ (keeping un appearances) and I went out drinking that night as I always did without seeing any trouble. Sometimes even a BBC reported might use artistic licence to ensure that his report is seen and attracts attention.

is dumbo the pill head in it?

On right now! Woo hoo!