Sue Lloyd-Roberts Remembered

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:00:00. > :00:16.Sue Lloyd-Roberts died in October. She was an utterly extraordinary

:00:17. > :00:26.pioneering journalist. Pretending to be lost travellers

:00:27. > :00:32.with the camera concealed in a bag, I get the closest yet to China's

:00:33. > :00:37.forced labourers. She was one of the very first TV reporters to shoot her

:00:38. > :00:44.own footage. She was renowned for challenging authority. I'm afraid I

:00:45. > :00:51.don't remain an impartial observer. Why not?

:00:52. > :01:00.And giving voice to those who needed to be heard.

:01:01. > :01:06.I'm told to run as shots are heard and soldiers are seeing at the end

:01:07. > :01:10.of the street. We should hide because when the security forces

:01:11. > :01:19.attack, the first thing they are looking for is the camera. As one

:01:20. > :01:23.fellow journalists said, she exposed human rights abuses in so many

:01:24. > :01:29.countries it always surprised me the world's Thai red is didn't gain up

:01:30. > :01:35.to stop her. -- tyrants. In this special tribute we look back at some

:01:36. > :01:50.of the landmark reports to reflect on what made her such a unique

:01:51. > :01:57.journalist. One of the most remarkable Expose is came early in

:01:58. > :02:01.her career at the BBC. Under this guy, left by a kidney transplant

:02:02. > :02:12.operation in China, there is almost certainly the kidney of an executed

:02:13. > :02:15.prisoner. Posing as an amateur or apologist, Sue Lloyd-Roberts sneak

:02:16. > :02:20.into China to gather evidence of a secret trade in human organs. It's

:02:21. > :02:24.believed hundreds of foreigners are coming to China every year for their

:02:25. > :02:27.kidney transplants to hospitals like this in Canton, that services the

:02:28. > :02:31.Hong Kong market. The number is increasing all the time. What

:02:32. > :02:35.worries human rights organisations is the possible connection between

:02:36. > :02:41.this growing business the number of death sentences handed sentences

:02:42. > :02:45.handed out in China today. She was adept at getting into countries that

:02:46. > :02:54.were off-limits. -- death sentences handed out. TRANSLATION: My kidney

:02:55. > :02:58.was very fresh. The doctor said the prisoner was young, under 25 and

:02:59. > :03:02.healthy. Although the patients were keen enough to talk, the use of

:03:03. > :03:06.executed prisoners as organ donors is not usually talked about in China

:03:07. > :03:13.and certainly not to foreigners. Myself and my Chinese colleague was

:03:14. > :03:17.asked to leave. It was regarded as a routine manner when we enquired at

:03:18. > :03:24.the hospital about arranging for an operation for a fictitious patient.

:03:25. > :03:32.We discuss money, a meeting we filmed secretly. No, we don't take

:03:33. > :03:35.credit cards, she said. With perfect -- for cash, preferably dollars.

:03:36. > :03:40.Things are done differently here, she said. We can do things that are

:03:41. > :03:43.impossible in your country. TRANSLATION: I am not saying whether

:03:44. > :03:47.it is prisoners or not. The state policy is that you can't meet the

:03:48. > :03:55.donors. I suggest you stay out of this and don't get involved. But she

:03:56. > :03:58.did. After this broadcast went out, she was tried by the Chinese

:03:59. > :04:00.authorities in absentia and sentenced to seven years in prison.

:04:01. > :04:15.It didn't stop her returning. Sue's career began in 1974 at ITN.

:04:16. > :04:23.In the 1980s she pioneered the use of the hand-held video camera. These

:04:24. > :04:27.pictures, taken by hidden camera, show people queueing for hours for

:04:28. > :04:30.the most basic food. It meant she could travel alone and undetected to

:04:31. > :04:37.countries that weren't always keen on foreign reporters. The man who

:04:38. > :04:40.has ruled Romania for over two decades is the Communist leader most

:04:41. > :04:45.likened to Stalin today. He now wants to remain Rowe -- destroy

:04:46. > :04:47.Romania's village life in a programme to eradicate the

:04:48. > :04:52.differences between the rural and urban man. TRANSLATION: I house was

:04:53. > :04:56.knocked to the ground. They made us live in new blocks. Everything is

:04:57. > :05:02.wretched and miserable. What can be done? The villagers say it is a

:05:03. > :05:06.death sentence. No longer able to grow their own vegetables and sell

:05:07. > :05:11.their chickens in private markets, they say they will starve in private

:05:12. > :05:18.Russians. This gypsy woman offered her her sister's child. Sue returned

:05:19. > :05:22.to Romania in 2000. This time to report on the sale of babies. Most

:05:23. > :05:27.of them have been abandoned by their parents. The country is poor today

:05:28. > :05:33.than it was even under the previous regime. -- poorer today. At first

:05:34. > :05:37.everyone thought we were here to buy a baby. When we told them we were

:05:38. > :05:40.investigating illegal adoptions, we were immediately referred to a house

:05:41. > :05:47.which was little more than a brewing on the edge of the village and to a

:05:48. > :05:50.grief stricken father. TRANSLATION: I took the children to the orphanage

:05:51. > :05:54.so that they wouldn't die. We would have certainly died if they had

:05:55. > :06:01.stayed here in the village. They never came back. Using a secret

:06:02. > :06:04.camera with a translator we paid a call, telling the director that I

:06:05. > :06:11.was a wealthy woman who wanted to choose a baby. She showed me around

:06:12. > :06:14.the orphanage in between taking calls on her mobile phone. Such

:06:15. > :06:18.access is forbidden in Romania. She never asked to see my papers. Maybe

:06:19. > :06:22.she assumed I had permission from the UK. There were 60 also baby is

:06:23. > :06:28.here. They all looked clean and fed, not all shared the rocking motion of

:06:29. > :06:32.babies suffering from neglect. She offered me three boys to choose

:06:33. > :06:37.from. I asked whether their mothers had given their permission. We have

:06:38. > :06:42.all the old files with Agassiz, signatures and everything. We will

:06:43. > :06:48.forge the signature. He wanted will check? With by their parents some

:06:49. > :06:52.cardboard rolls to cover the roofs of their houses, bread, cornflour

:06:53. > :07:02.and so on. A never complained. Are you saying I simply await the baby?

:07:03. > :07:08.Sue reported many times from Burma during the period of the military.

:07:09. > :07:11.In 1997 GMT at the country using her Irish passport in order to evade the

:07:12. > :07:18.authorities. -- she entered the country. Journalists are not allowed

:07:19. > :07:23.into Burma today unless they sign a declaration promising not to contact

:07:24. > :07:26.Aung San Suu Kyi, as that was one of the main purposes of my trip I

:07:27. > :07:31.travelled there illegally as a tourist. I had been told that a

:07:32. > :07:36.train ride is as good a way as any to look out for the images which

:07:37. > :07:39.make up the ongoing human tragedy. The farms where the harvest is

:07:40. > :07:44.seized by soldiers without compensation. The lines of shanty

:07:45. > :07:49.towns where thousands have been forcibly relocated, again without

:07:50. > :07:53.compensation, to make way for new industrial estates and luxury

:07:54. > :08:00.hotels, which, because of the regional economic slump, stand

:08:01. > :08:03.empty. The length one must go to to meet with Burma's only

:08:04. > :08:07.democratically elected leader are observed. I was advised to dress

:08:08. > :08:11.like the locals and get to a safe house by dawn before the military

:08:12. > :08:17.take up their positions outside any house that she might visit in the

:08:18. > :08:22.area. I was -- later she arrived and the military took up their positions

:08:23. > :08:26.outside. Aren't people now afraid to join your call for democracy? Nobody

:08:27. > :08:30.wants to live in fear and insecurity forever, but I'm afraid nothing

:08:31. > :08:35.comes free. I've always been honest to the people of Burma about that.

:08:36. > :08:41.Nothing comes free and if you want something that is valuable than you

:08:42. > :08:44.have two make payment accordingly. These days it is difficult for Aung

:08:45. > :08:50.San Suu Kyi to get any message to the outside world. After leaving the

:08:51. > :08:53.house, I was followed, arrested, strip-searched and deported from

:08:54. > :08:59.Burma. Fortunately we had devised an ultimate plan to get the tape of the

:09:00. > :09:06.interview out of the country. -- alternative plan.

:09:07. > :09:14.In 2011, Sue was granted where access to the secretive world of

:09:15. > :09:21.North Korea, reducing a report which won an Emmy award. -- producing.

:09:22. > :09:32.Everywhere she travelled, the mind is followed trying to control the

:09:33. > :09:35.message. -- minders followed. At school, children are taught to sing

:09:36. > :09:39.a song that tells them that they have nothing to envy in the outside

:09:40. > :09:44.world and that they are the happiest people on earth.

:09:45. > :09:50.A kindergarten with its own indoor fairground. For more than a week in

:09:51. > :10:02.North Korea they invited us to indulge in a fantasy.

:10:03. > :10:07.I think what surprised me most here was that they could believe that we

:10:08. > :10:18.would believe that what they showed us was for real.

:10:19. > :10:26.I asked to visit a farm to look at how the country feeds itself. And,

:10:27. > :10:31.at breakneck speed, we drove past towns and villages in various stages

:10:32. > :10:37.of dilapidation. I didn't see a single tractor in the owl it took to

:10:38. > :10:44.get here to the cooperative farm, which our minders had chosen. -- the

:10:45. > :10:47.owl. We saw other villagers that didn't look so tidy, neat and

:10:48. > :10:53.orderly and indeed wealthy. Can we visit them?

:10:54. > :11:04.Is that possible? No? Your medals? You wear them everyday? It was

:11:05. > :11:09.explained that the medals and the feast were because the head of the

:11:10. > :11:15.household was 60 today and retiring. Clearly some confusion here.

:11:16. > :11:22.I am 59, I still work on the farm and I normally eat noodles for

:11:23. > :11:29.lunch, he announced, before returning to the script.

:11:30. > :11:35.When a tractor eventually drove into sight, the chief man here appear to

:11:36. > :11:41.be trying to hide something from the camera. He told the tractor bearing

:11:42. > :11:47.the European Union logo to driveaway. After all, the country

:11:48. > :11:53.claims to be self-sufficient in everything, even food. Even your

:11:54. > :11:58.tractor I saw was donated by the European Union, so the country is

:11:59. > :12:05.not surviving without aid. As was to happen time and time again, my

:12:06. > :12:09.minder refused to translate. Shall I say that again? Do you not

:12:10. > :12:14.understand the question? I'm sure he knows all of these. It's not a

:12:15. > :12:27.surprise to him. In the end they negotiated an acceptable response.

:12:28. > :12:32.TRANSLATION: We had problems for a short time, but with our own

:12:33. > :12:34.industry and output we can produce enough crops on our own without any

:12:35. > :12:44.support from outside. Giving voice to people who don't get

:12:45. > :12:47.heard. But the locals tell you a very different story. They say the

:12:48. > :12:53.police colluded in a system. Challenging authority. Those were

:12:54. > :12:57.the hallmarks of her journalism. Whether it UK, covering poverty, or

:12:58. > :13:04.exposing the ill treatment of migrant workers in Qatar ahead of

:13:05. > :13:09.the 2022 World Cup. Like children all over Britain, the children of

:13:10. > :13:13.this family watch the TV adverts and mentally compiled their Christmas

:13:14. > :13:23.Day present list. Next door in the kitchen, their parents who get ?140

:13:24. > :13:27.a week wonder how they will manage. Agencies working with Britain's four

:13:28. > :13:31.report an alarming increase in the number of people who are not having

:13:32. > :13:36.access to regular credit, rely on personal finance companies and loan

:13:37. > :13:41.sharks charging up to 40% interest rate and to live in dread of the

:13:42. > :13:46.knock on the door. In all, six creditors come to the door today,

:13:47. > :13:51.including the man from Taylor's finance. He is charging over 30%

:13:52. > :13:58.interest on a cash loan of ?150. How busy are you are the Christmas? Very

:13:59. > :14:00.busy. How many houses? About 30. Do you take advantage of people who

:14:01. > :14:09.need to buy presents at Christmas? No. I don't take advantage in that

:14:10. > :14:21.way, no. By the time the final to collect, she has run out of money.

:14:22. > :14:31.Just give us a bell. All rights? An hour before dawn in the -- Joe Hart.

:14:32. > :14:33.The nightshift leave while the dayshift arrived. A 24-hour

:14:34. > :14:42.operation for the 1.5 million migrant workers here.

:14:43. > :14:49.When the day shift ends at five o'clock, we follow buses that tech

:14:50. > :14:54.workers up to camps up to 20 miles from the city. People have been

:14:55. > :15:00.arrested to talking to migrant workers in Cachar. We had to be

:15:01. > :15:06.quick. The men say they get ?150 per month, with ?40 extra for food.

:15:07. > :15:12.TRANSLATION: What can a poor man do? I need to earn money. Have you had

:15:13. > :15:22.an accident? I wanted to ask how this man had broken his leg. At two

:15:23. > :15:34.men burst into the room. They threatened to take the camera and we

:15:35. > :15:37.were thrown out of the camp. In 2011, Syria was beginning to fall

:15:38. > :15:43.apart. Posing as an academic researching

:15:44. > :15:48.Syrian activities, she became the first Western TV journalist to enter

:15:49. > :15:55.the country. She travelled alone to Damascus.

:15:56. > :15:59.The road to Damascus, I am travelling without permission from

:16:00. > :16:02.the authorities to meet with the protesters. Syria is a dangerous

:16:03. > :16:09.place to be, particularly for those demanding a change in regime. It is

:16:10. > :16:13.Thursday evening, the eve of what has become protest today in Syria.

:16:14. > :16:19.People are dashing home before the roadblocks set up 20 suburbs of

:16:20. > :16:25.Damascus and the city itself. The thing authorities want is for people

:16:26. > :16:32.to converge on the city, recreating the Damascus equivalent of Cairo's

:16:33. > :16:36.Tahir Square. And she returns to the country a few months later to the

:16:37. > :16:50.very heart of the anti- Assad uprising.

:16:51. > :17:00.The so-called capital of the Syrian revolution. Where, despite the daily

:17:01. > :17:05.death toll, the protest continues. But the tactics have changed. Those

:17:06. > :17:12.demonstrations are being held at night in an effort to minimise

:17:13. > :17:16.casualties. And as the only journalist here to view the protest

:17:17. > :17:21.first-hand, I noted another significant difference. Back in

:17:22. > :17:25.March when they began, the protesters called for reform. Then

:17:26. > :17:33.they called for the fall of the regime. Today, as the name of each

:17:34. > :17:38.atrocity and massacre is carried out by Assad's army and his thugs is

:17:39. > :17:47.called out, the crowd respond by demanding the death of the president

:17:48. > :17:51.by hanging. These protests are taking place every night in Homs now

:17:52. > :17:54.with a practically unabated enthusiasm, which is impressive not

:17:55. > :18:05.least because they have been going on for seven months now and so

:18:06. > :18:11.little has been achieved. I am told to run as shots I heard and soldiers

:18:12. > :18:15.are seen at the end of the street. We should hide, because when the

:18:16. > :18:16.security forces attack, the first thing they are looking for his

:18:17. > :18:29.cameras. That is quite nice. Lots and lots of

:18:30. > :18:33.black. She often said being a woman helped her get to places under

:18:34. > :18:38.cover, because she could slip under the radar more easily than a man.

:18:39. > :18:42.But that did not stop her confronting injustices against women

:18:43. > :19:07.in society, sometimes forcefully, sometimes subtly and with humour.

:19:08. > :19:13.The Saudi Harley-Davidson club out for a ride. To my astonishment, they

:19:14. > :19:22.took me along. That is me, attempting to waive.

:19:23. > :19:35.That was good fun, thank you. Their action broke all the rules which

:19:36. > :19:38.govern Saudi society. Surely, I thought, such dashing risk-taking

:19:39. > :19:43.young men would sympathise with the fate of the Saudi woman. Why are

:19:44. > :19:54.their wives not with them? Do they have the right to enjoy themselves?

:19:55. > :20:09.threaded throughout her work. At what also shines through is her

:20:10. > :20:15.humanity. Aung San Suu Kyi said she confirmed her belief that the best

:20:16. > :20:20.journalists were also the nicest. Her compassion and her absolute

:20:21. > :20:25.belief in the power of journalism to change things is clear in this final

:20:26. > :20:32.report about a group of young journalists in India. The boys in

:20:33. > :20:37.Delhi who have been learning to read and write believe that only people

:20:38. > :20:44.understood them, they would get more sympathy, hence the weekly editorial

:20:45. > :20:49.meeting to discuss their newspaper. TRANSLATION: The reason we do this

:20:50. > :20:52.is we are all poor. We have this paper because when one of us has an

:20:53. > :20:58.accident and dies, the newspaper will not report it. The distribution

:20:59. > :21:05.process must wait for nightfall, when the police, not the natural

:21:06. > :21:10.supporters of youthful enthusiasm, let all and social reform, are less

:21:11. > :21:25.likely to be about. It begins to look and sound like a schoolboy's

:21:26. > :21:39.counting. -- outing. It is a monthly ritual. Sometimes they get away with

:21:40. > :21:50.it. This time they do not. I am afraid I do not remain an impartial

:21:51. > :21:55.observer. Why can't they put their posters up? Everyone else is

:21:56. > :21:58.allowed. Whether the boys turn, authority appears to panic at the

:21:59. > :22:11.sight of children asserting their rights. Why can't they put their

:22:12. > :22:24.posters up? Every other political party and organisation is allowed to

:22:25. > :22:26.hang their posters up, why not the children? At the monthly meeting of

:22:27. > :22:32.their microcredit bank, they hear at last there have been given the funds

:22:33. > :22:46.to start banking operations. They have a plan.

:22:47. > :22:53.The boys have noted the long queues of the Delhi rickshaw drivers

:22:54. > :23:13.waiting for fuel. These will be their future customers. They retain

:23:14. > :23:19.the elated, only to be thwarted by adult authority again. -- return.

:23:20. > :23:27.The only place they can call home has been closed without warning.

:23:28. > :23:32.They are not even allowed to come back in to collect their schoolbooks

:23:33. > :23:38.for the next day. Why is it you are turning the children out, they have

:23:39. > :23:43.nowhere else to sleep? We are not authorised to give you an interview.

:23:44. > :24:00.There was only two hours notice given. Is this reasonable notice? If

:24:01. > :24:03.the government officials who have such power over the lives of working

:24:04. > :24:08.children deny that they are human beings, you begin to ask what hope

:24:09. > :24:15.there is that anyone will listen to them. They have convinced me they

:24:16. > :24:20.know the solution. Stop attacking us, there are saying, but attacked

:24:21. > :24:24.the poverty which destroys families. Let us work so long as our survival

:24:25. > :24:30.depends on it, but give us the education and the help we need to

:24:31. > :24:35.change our lives. Meanwhile, we will not give up. We will carry on with

:24:36. > :24:39.working and with our dreams.