PANEL CONCLUDES TV DRUG FILM WAS FAKE

A prize-winning documentary about Colombian drug-runners that was broadcast
on CBS-TV's 60 Minutes was a fake, a British commission has concluded, with
paid actors portrayed as drug dealers and the producer's hotel room
disguised as a drug kingpin's jungle hide-out.

An independent panel of lawyers and veteran producers said the news program
The Connection was essentially fiction, the Washington Post reports from
London. The film had dramatic footage of a drug "mule" said to be carrying
millions of dollars worth of heroin to London for Colombia's Cali drug
cartel. The panel concluded that there was no "mule" and no heroin, and
that the "important new smuggling route" the program purported to expose
does not exist.

The documentary was made by Canton Communications, a prominent British TV
and film production company, and was sold to CBS in the U.S. in 1997. It
features hidden cameras, disguised-voice interviews, secretive locations
and other tools of documentary filmmakers.

The flaws in the production were first revealed in May by London's Guardian
newspaper. The Guardian report prompted Carlton to set up the independent
panel, which issued its devastating report on the weekend.

CBS did not undertake its own study of the program, but said that the
results of the British probe will be reported on 60 Minutes.

The Connection has been broadcast around the world and has won eight
journalism awards. Carlton said it would return the awards and refund the
fees it received from networks that bought the program.

The panel said it could not determine whether the film's producer, Marc de
Beaufort, knew about all the false elements of his documentary. De Beaufort
declined interviews but said in a videotaped statement that the suggestion
he had used paid actors was "untenable."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski