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Let's unleash the BBC's potential to combat fake news and help Global Britain

2020-07-23T10:23:09+00:00

By acting now, we can ensure fair and free news - along with Britain's voice and values - continue to resonate powerfully around the world

The past few months have proved just how priceless are the values of traditional journalism in the ‘fake news’ age. Two forces in particular have brought this home in no uncertain terms.

First, the massive “infodemic” of online misinformation that has grown up alongside the coronavirus crisis. The problem is so severe that, even if a safe and effective vaccine is found, global health leaders warn that the drowning out of reliable, authoritative guidance could dramatically hinder take up.

Second, the growing use of disinformation as a tool for democratic disruption. This week’s report into Russia’s activity in the UK has laid the stakes bare. For the state-backed actors of Russia and China, the provision of news is first and foremost an extension of state influence.

The warning bells ring loud and clear. Last year, Russia’s RT was fined for serious and repeated breaches of our impartiality rules. Earlier this month, we learned that China’s English-language news network, CGTN, could be banned from the UK for similar breaches.

For the BBC, the result has been audiences flocking to us in their millions in search of trusted news and information. And not just at home, but right around the world.

Today, we are releasing new figures which show that our audience has soared to a record 468 million people outside the UK every week. Whatever your views on the BBC, it’s a reminder that we are without question one of Britain’s strongest and best-known brands, synonymous with quality and accuracy worldwide. Our international news services rank first for trust and reliability. Our World Service remains a beacon of democratic values and a lifeline for millions living in fear, captivity or uncertainty.

This is not simply Britain’s gift to the world. Independent research shows that there is an exceptionally high correlation between places where people are aware of the BBC and places where people think positively about the UK. More than that, the BBC helps UK trade.

This has perhaps never been more important. The UK will forge a new relationship with the world in the decade ahead, built on an ambitious vision of ‘Global Britain’. Success will mean drawing on all our considerable international assets, and that means unleashing the full global potential of the BBC.

The Government has long recognised the BBC’s vital role in helping to enhance Britain’s reputation and influence around the world. This is why, four years ago, it agreed to make its largest-ever increase in investment in the World Service.

That funding of £86 million a year has allowed us to complete the World Service’s biggest expansion since the Second World War. We now operate in 42 languages from Korean to Punjabi to Pidgin. We have opened new and expanded bureaux in locations from Delhi to Bangkok to Belgrade.

The result is that we have been able to step up the fight against fake news worldwide and support democracy on the front line. That’s meant journalists on the ground during elections in countries like Nigeria and India, calling out fictions and fact-checking disputed issues in real time. It’s meant world-class investigative journalism from teams like Africa Eye, created to hold power to account across the African continent.

In Khartoum, it was Africa Eye’s investigation into last year’s massacre of peaceful protestors, based on painstaking analysis of more than 300 pieces of mobile phone footage, that revealed it was possibly ordered by Sudan’s military rulers. In Baghdad, it was a BBC Arabic investigation that exposed Shia clerics advising men in how to abuse young girls. In Kashmir, we were able to respond to an India-imposed media blackout by extending our short wave radio services in three languages.

None of this would have happened without BBC teams on the ground. And by working with partner organisations and local independent journalists to promote the highest journalistic standards, our teams also play a vital role in helping to train journalists around the world and turn the tide on fake news.

It doesn’t stop there. Just this month we announced that the Trusted News Initiative – an international partnership of major news and tech organisations, convened and led by the BBC – will focus on fighting disinformation during the US election. This in a country where a recent Reuters Institute study found BBC News to be more trusted than all major US news providers.

All this takes place against the backdrop of a growing battle for global influence, in which news provision has emerged as the key weapon. The first years of this new decade will decide which competing vision of the future of news will triumph: the fake, or the fair and free.

This is a race that the UK is well-placed to win. The BBC is its priceless asset; the pre-eminent provider to the world of facts you can trust. What we have achieved with our additional investment has proved how far we can extend the reach of Britain’s democratic influence and amplify our global voice. It has also shown how much further we can go.

When I became BBC Director General in 2013, I set the challenge of doubling our global audience to reach 500 million people by our centenary in 2022. We are more than on track to achieve that goal. Now I have announced a redoubling of our ambition. The BBC has plans in place to reach a global audience of one billion people by the end of the decade.

We are consulting closely with Government on how further investment could realise those plans and help strengthen Britain’s democratic influence worldwide. We need to seize this moment. Get it right and we have a chance to send out a clear signal about the UK’s place in the world at a crucial time. By acting now, we can help ensure that Britain’s voice and values will continue to resonate powerfully around the globe in the next decade and beyond.

This article originally appeared in The Daily Telegraph

Why we broadcast what Jamal Khashoggi told us three days before he disappeared

2018-10-10T12:40:00+00:00

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, here appearing on the BBC News HARDtalk programme in November, 2017

Some people have questioned the decision by Newshour and The World Tonight to broadcast the words of Jamal Khashoggi recorded shortly before the formal start of an interview.

So I'd like to explain how we arrived at that decision.

Mr Khashoggi, a regular contributor to the World Service, came into Broadcasting House in London the weekend before last. He was on his way from Washington to Istanbul.

The interview was on the subject of the Oslo Middle East peace accords, but while he sat in front of a microphone in our radio studio, Mr Khashoggi was asked whether he could return to Saudi Arabia. In that exchange he spoke of how he feared he would be detained, particularly after acquaintances had been arrested.

Ordinarily, this kind of 'pre-chat' would never be transmitted. But three days after his visit to our studio he disappeared.

It was soon clear that something very serious had happened to Mr Khashoggi.

We began weighing up whether we should be broadcasting this conversation, which had been recorded automatically in the studio.

Firstly, we asked whether there was a clear public interest in what he had said. We felt the answer to this was yes. This may have been the last interview he recorded before his disappearance, and he expressed concerns for his safety. Concerns that have since been borne out.

Next, we asked whether broadcasting this material could put him at any greater risk. This is not an abstract exercise for me. While working for the BBC internationally I have had to deal with our own journalists who have been abducted or detained, and appreciate how critical these things can be.

We went back through Mr Khashoggi’s published articles in the Washington Post, and through previous interviews with the BBC, and found that nothing expressed in the latest recording was substantially different to words already in the public domain.

As an example, in a previous interview with Newshour in January of this year, he had said, on the record, that he couldn’t return to Saudi Arabia because “I am 60 years old – I have no stomach to spend my time in jail.”

We finally considered whether all this taken together should outweigh the principle of not broadcasting a recording that was not intended for transmission without consent.

We debated this for some time, with arguments on both sides.

In the end we felt broadcasting the conversation was in the public interest, and believe that hearing his fears expressed in his own words, at this particular time, was important and relevant to telling his story.

From catfishing to unregistered religious marriages: finding news stories hidden In Plain Sight

2018-07-24T10:37:37+00:00

The news agenda the BBC covers is changing - and our In Plain Sight project is playing a big part in bringing this about.

When it comes to big breaking news and rolling stories, we know that the audience turn to the BBC in huge numbers and original journalism is a priority for us.

But what about the stories that our audiences – particularly underserved audiences - are talking about that don’t make it into our coverage?

In some cases, we might not get to a story until it’s become a huge breaking story with massive repercussions. When that happens, of course we reflect and ask ourselves why we didn’t get to it earlier.

It was in a conversation following the Grenfell Tower disaster, instigated by our former Director of News, James Harding, which brought about the In Plain Sight project.

In Plain Sight set out to get to those stories and tell them in a way that resonates with younger and more diverse audiences.

To do that, we’re not creating a new programme, platform or launching another BBC brand. We’re simply making sure that younger, more diverse members of staff are given a platform to pitch stories and then are producing and reporting those stories themselves across existing BBC outlets.

We have been running manager-free sessions, where we invite along staff from across the BBC to come and pitch ideas. There are no restrictions. No expectations on people to come up with a ‘peg’. We worry about that later. As long as their story is interesting and reflects a trend that’s happening in Britain then that’s all that matters.

The stories are developed in the sessions with help of experienced producers and the best ideas are then presented to our Head of Newsgathering, Jonathan Munro and our Mobile / Online Controller, Fiona Campbell.

Our first In Plain Sight story was about closures of sexual health clinics in England and Wales, and ended up on the Six O’clock News; News At Ten; Newsbeat; Radio 5 Live; Radio 4; our General News Service and of course online and on social media.

Other stories from our first sessions include the rise of young British men travelling abroad for cheap hair transplant operations; the impact of unregistered religious and cultural marriages in the UK; and the increasing trend of ‘catfishing’, where people’s identities are stolen on social media.

Not only are these ideas fresh and completely different to the usual stories that dominate our planning meetings, but they are being developed and fronted by staff who have a connection to the story – this is key to connecting with new audiences.

In just a short time In Plain Sight has been inundated with brilliant story ideas and has identified new, fresh talent who have not come up through the traditional routes into the BBC.

How the BBC stays safe in the world’s most dangerous places

2018-07-10T08:54:53+00:00

The BBC High Risk and News Safety team has its origins from the time of the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s, when the war's easy accessibility led to a lot of journalists, many of them freelancers, getting killed or injured. There was a need to do something more systematic to make this safer.

The volume of work is mainly from BBC News, but also from Sport, such as for covering the World Cup in Russia; Brazil for the Olympics and World Cup; and the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Other departments we’ve worked with are the Natural History unit, when they’re going out to remote areas, and BBC Factual, for example on a trip to the Goma Volcano Observatory in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

BBC Media Action, the corporation’s charity which provides training and support to local media across the globe, runs projects and programmes in places like Afghanistan, South Sudan and Nigeria, which require our involvement. There are more than 60 BBC international bureaux, with two thirds in areas where there are security concerns, for example in Baghdad, Kabul and Kinshasa.

Risk can also mean high levels of criminality, or government interference. There are many places where the media, and the BBC, are seen as problematic by governments.

There are 16 people in the team, with six constantly deployed around the world going out with teams. They’ve all been in this kind of work for more than ten years, from military, emergency medical, police, and security backgrounds, with a lot of overseas experience. We have people who were in specialist units of the British Army, trained in surveillance and counter-surveillance; covert camera work is pretty similar.

High Risk and News Safety team members are also trained in advanced emergency medical techniques and can provide trauma support in-country.

We advise on one or two situations involving individual members of BBC staff every week, from minor detention at checkpoints, to threats to life. Some complicated cases can continue for months, or years.

We’re probably the largest such team in the world because I don’t think anyone else covers as much as the BBC does - we carry out around 1,000 risk assessments for high risk deployments every year.

On our current radar is the situation in Yemen; Kabul is always a concern given the complex and deteriorating security situation; lots of teams looking at accessing north east Syria; and of course Russia is always full of surprises.

Mosul has probably been the place which has most worried me. Not only were the risks exponentially high but we had teams exposed to these risks for extended periods. There were a number of very close calls, particularly reporting from the house-to-house fighting in the old town. The so-called Islamic State were prolific in their use of improvised explosive devices and expert in setting these up as booby traps.

While we provide the advice, it’s always an editorial decision whether to go or not. We see these difficult decisions being made every day. The BBC is full of experienced, ambitious, professional journalists, who want to get out there and get the best stories. Our challenge is about making them as safe as possible.

Key milestones in the Local News Partnership project

2017-08-14T09:58:37+00:00

We’ve reached three key milestones in the Local News Partnership project, with a fourth just around the corner.

Firstly, we have started to approve news organisations across the UK as Section 1 Partners. These partners have met the first part of the Eligibility Criteria and will be able to use the material generated by the project: the BBC’s local news video and audio, the content produced by the Shared Data Unit and the stories filed by the Local Democracy Reporters. We now have more than 600 organisations on board and we hope to welcome many more later this summer.

Secondly, following a tendering process we have found a technology partner to help us deliver all this content. StreamAMG currently helps the BBC World Service deliver content to its network of partners and we’re confident they’ll be able to provide a simple and smart solution for domestic news providers too. There’s a lot of work going on inside the BBC in parallel with this to make sure that every local television and radio clip and package finds its way into the new system, in the appropriate format and watermarked with the BBC blocks.

Thirdly, we’ve appointed the first two members of the BBC team which will run the Shared Data Unit and they are now focused on delivering UK-wide content in the autumn as well as welcoming secondments from partners to work alongside them in Birmingham.

Even more challenging than the technology is the network of reporters themselves. The Local Democracy Reporting Service is a virtual agency, a network of journalists funded by the Licence Fee, working not for the BBC but for the whole local news sector in the UK. Despite sitting in different news rooms across the country, all the LDRs will follow a common editorial brief and a single set of standards. Local councils have a huge impact on our lives – it really matters that we all know what’s going on – and we believe that such a service will make a significant contribution to greater public understanding and engagement. Hard-pressed news teams will have access to high quality and trustworthy reporting from local authorities; the public will find out more about the decisions being made in their names; local councillors will be able to reach more constituents when they speak out.

We believe the LDRs will help drive up both the quality and quantity of local democratic reporting, and will help support local news organisations. But we are clear that they are not a solution to the financial challenges faced by some parts of the sector. The intention is to enrich local journalism for BBC audiences, but in a way which taps into the sector’s expertise and shares the fruits of that partnership as widely as possible. Whatever shape local news takes in the coming years of this Charter period, we can at least be sure that there will be 150 impartial reporters out there working for the common good.

The next milestone of the project will be to award the contracts to host those reporters and to approve more partners to receive that content.

Matthew Barraclough is Editor BBC Journalism Working Group

Read also Local journalism partnership: BBC and local news partners move forward

Operation Sanctuary: An Inside Out North East and Cumbria special

2017-08-09T15:31:49+00:00

Spring 2016. Inside Out Producer Dan Farthing rings from Newcastle Crown Court.

“You will not believe what I have just heard…” and what he went on to describe was indeed pretty extraordinary.

Dan was following a series of interlinked trials of more than twenty Asian men, accused of grooming vulnerable young teenagers in the west end of Newcastle. Reporting restrictions banning broadcasts until the conclusion of the final trial meant we’d seen little early evidence of Dan’s regular days on the press bench.

Then, out of the blue, the prosecution revealed Northumbria Police had used a CHIS - a covert human intelligence source - to supply information on so-called “parties” where teenagers were plied with drink and drugs and sexually assaulted.

And in this case, the CHIS chosen by Northumbria Police was a man convicted as part of a group who raped a child in 2002. In an extraordinary turn of events, XY, as he was known, had fallen out with his police handler and was threatening to go to the press - alleging he’d been asked to plant drugs and even drive girls to the “parties”. His fee from the public purse? More than ten thousand pounds.

For the lone figure on the press bench it was a red flag moment.

And so began more than a year of legal wrangling to allow the public to know about the police tactic. Defence teams - even in the normally staid, bewigged world of the court - were animated. They, like us, wanted to hear from XY. Eventually the judge agreed that XY, now under police protection should be brought to court to give evidence in an Abuse of Process hearing. Potentially his evidence and claims of evidence of planting drugs could scupper the trials.

The prosecution, however, did not want the press present.

Until then, much of the information on XY had been largely Dan’s - a producer in a small, dogged current affairs team in the North East. Challenging the secrecy of the court would mean that was no longer the case. We would need to share our story - both inside and outside of the BBC.

Joining forces with other news organisations, we argued for our case to be allowed to hear the evidence. Having won the right to stay in the press benches, we were able to witness XY’s extraordinary court appearance. Our programme, Operation Sanctuary: An Inside Out Special Investigation, edged closer to transmission.

The use of XY is surely a decision which merits public debate. The former head of the government body set up to tackle child sexual exploitation told us that as an ex-police officer he would not have sanctioned the use of a child rapist in this way. A grooming victim who now advises police forces across the country described it as a “kick in the teeth” for other survivors.

The police argue that to catch the kind of men who preyed on vulnerable children you need to work with difficult people. They lobbied vigorously ahead of transmission for us not to major on the employment of XY within the documentary. They had, they said, been given a clean bill of health by the IPCC - a report we have yet to see. Shortly before the final verdicts the Chief Constable, 52-year-old Steve Ashman, announced his retirement from the force.

Then as we headed back to court - this time to argue about the timing of lifting reporting restrictions - the police sent their own barrister to argue that the Judge should impose retrospective restrictions on significant sections of what we’d heard in open court last year. In effect, much of the detail of XY’s engagement would have been denied to the public - including his payment. The Judge declined and our programme will be broadcast tonight (on the day the trial has concluded). A freedom of information request about the cost to Northumbria Police of protecting XY has been turned down on national security grounds.

So we have, finally, been able to explain to viewers a key part of the controversial police tactic in tackling a criminal gang. But should it really be so difficult to report on the decision to pay a convicted child rapist from the public purse? Should it be necessary to spend even more public money to allow viewers and listeners to know as much of the whole story as possible?

And had producer Dan not been paying attention in his lone press bench vigil - perhaps none of us would have been any the wiser.

Operation Sanctuary: An Inside Out North East and Cumbria Special Investigation airs on Wednesday 9 August at 7.30pm on BBC One in the North East and Cumbria and 8.30pm on the BBC News Channel. The programme will also be available on BBC iPlayer

Better In or Out? Regional EU Referendum specials on BBC Television

2016-06-10T12:32:50+00:00

Are you clear what the eventual outcome of the EU referendum might mean to you and your family and friends? Yes, it It is a pretty fundamental question, but one probably best considered carefully to avoid any regrets about where you place your cross on June 23rd.

While the trading of verbal blows by the leave and remain groups seems to have been one of the most outstanding features of the campaign so far, some observers have questioned whether the true impact of what the enthusiasts are arguing about has been sufficiently explained by them or, crucially, understood by those voting.

This Sunday evening there will be no hiding place for either side. In special BBC One regional debate programmes leading supporters from both campaign groups will come face to face across England with audiences from their local areas who want straight answers about how the various claims and counter claims might actually impact in communities where they live and work.

The programmes have a very clear remit. They are there to close in and discuss the key regional referendum issues and stories that will really resonate with audiences in each particular part of the country. Their brief is to avoid covering purely national topics. These debates are there to give a truly regional perspective and to complement, and not in any way duplicate, the BBC’s wider referendum coverage.

The programmes are likely to have wide appeal. Producers have invited panellists from a broad range of backgrounds – from top politicians to captains of industry, from human rights activists to an international pop star with particularly strong political leanings. And they have made sure that audiences are not only balanced in terms of those who are likely to vote remain or exit, but that they are made up of people from as many different backgrounds and walks of life as possible.

Our television debates are far from the only way in which our teams in the regions are getting under the skin of the referendum story though. All of our 39 local radio stations will be broadcasting similar debate programmes too, with most of them being recorded or broadcast live from the heart of communities in their areas. And for months now, even before the referendum date was announced, our news and specialist political reporters across England have been reflecting the twists and turns from a grassroots position on a daily basis in our bulletins and programmes and on online and social media. In fact, by being truly in touch with local communities, and through their local contacts and sources, they have often managed to get a handle on how key elements of the bigger story haves been developing well before they have reached the national headlines.

We already know that people not only turn to us to find out more when there are significant stories on the go such as this, but they often come to us first too when they have something interesting or important to say on topics that have a significant bearing on their neighbourhoods.

That is why we feel it is so important to provide opportunities for them to hold local decision makers to account and to provide a platform for lively, engaging and constructive debate and discussion. And that is why we hope that you enjoy the special programme on BBC One in your area on Sunday night at 10.35pm and that it might just help you to feel just a little bit more informed when it comes to putting that cross on the paper.

Jason Dean is Politics Editor, BBC English Regions

Better In or Out is on regional BBC One at 10.35pm on Sunday 12 June.

Panorama - Living With Dementia: Chris’s Story

2016-06-02T14:10:54+00:00

A tall, self-assured cool guy, with a twinkle in his eye and an answer for everything, when I first met former biker and businessman Chris Roberts, I’d never have guessed he had dementia.

“If I had a pound for every time someone said “really?!” I’d be a rich man!” laughed Chris.

He was just 50 when he was diagnosed five years ago, with vascular dementia and young onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Since then, he’s devoted his life to awareness-raising, travelling with his wife Jayne, across Britain and abroad, speaking at conferences, giving the inside view on what life’s really like living with dementia.

“It keeps my brain busy, which is a good thing - because the more I can keep the old grey matter going, I think the less quickly I’ll progress,” he told us.

Chris is keen to point out that dementia is not just about memory; vision and co-ordination can also be affected, along with balance, concentration and a change in character – in Chris’ case, a very short temper.

“I used to be a very patient man so I would hardly ever lose my temper and I now will lose it quite daily,” says Chris.

Chris’ voice is a rare one; usually the story of dementia is told by the carers, not by the person living with the disease and that’s why Chris is so passionate, while he can, to raise awareness, and help others.

And it’s his commitment to awareness-raising that convinced him to allow us to follow him, for nearly two years, to show us what life’s really like behind closed doors, living with dementia.

So we headed off to Rhuddlan in North Wales, to meet Chris, his wife Jayne and teenage daughter Kate; using small hand-held cameras, we began to film Chris’ everyday life, from shopping and peeling potatoes to building and hanging a huge wall map –not forgetting numerous trips to speak at conferences.

Throughout, Chris would explain to us how his dementia was affecting him, and how he was coping with it– from severe anxiety, to visual problems; balance to, memory.

But if he hadn’t given us a running commentary, we would never have known he was so good at adapting, if he couldn’t do something, he’d simply find another way around it.

And that’s just how Chris liked it constantly adapting through life, he’d spent the last five years successfully covering up and working round the creeping signs of his dementia, so that until recently, no-one would know – unless he told them.

“I’ve always been a master blagger,” explained Chris. “I want to present as normal as I can I want to remain as normal as I can for as long as I can, so I'm becoming quite good at that too, very good at it!”

Chris’ incredible ability to cope and find solutions around his dementia was truly astonishing; but it left us with a problem: how were we going to illustrate the many difficulties that Chris was telling us about?

That’s where the CCTV came in, within weeks our technical team installed seven home CCTV cameras, along with highly-sensitive microphones, in the downstairs of Chris’ home, recording 24/7.

The results were incredible, before long we were witnessing for ourselves the difficulties Chris was telling us about.

Chris regularly would open every cupboard in the kitchen, looking for a mug or glass; Jayne would routinely come in later and close them all.

“I don’t know where anything in the house is anymore,” he says.

“It’s like someone’s moved you out for a couple of years and moved you back in again. I just have no memory of where things live anymore. I have to open all the drawers and cupboard doors and search for everything these days.”

On other occasions, we see Chris not knowing his way to the toilet, or upstairs.

“I can get lost in my own house,” says Chris. “ I can walk into a room and nothing is familiar about it, it’s really confusing when you get lost in your own house.”

We also left Chris and his family a handycam and Chris would regularly pick it up and record little video-diaries, by way of direct advice, to other people diagnosed with dementia.

We continued to film the family’s key events, to create an honest and revealing insight into their lives told very much through Chris’ eyes, and with his intention to inform others, uppermost in our minds.

It’s been almost two years since we started filming with Chris and his family. In that time, we’ve witnessed the disease’s progression first-hand.

They’re a remarkable family – baring their lives and souls to the cameras, at one of the most vulnerable periods in their lives, how many of us would allow CCTV cameras in our homes?

But they have always put up with us – and our cameras – for the greater good of informing and helping others with dementia, to give a true portrayal of what life is really like.

Chris is keen not to frighten people; he has been through some truly difficult times, but has met all his obstacles with his trademark good humour and optimism.

“There's nothing I don't miss, but there are new things I can do now you’ve got to look forward, never back. Concentrate what you can do not what you can’t.”

Many of the glimpses of Chris, Jayne and Kate’s lives are startling in their honesty; they have never flinched from telling it “as it is”. But they’re keen to stress that it’s not all bad.

“It is all changing, it’s changing quickly but what can you do?” says Kate.

“We have so many laughs, like, we don’t laugh at dad, we laugh with dad, but there’s so many things that have happened because of it which have, like, given us extra memories, so it’s not all doom and gloom.”

And Jayne is passionate about living for the moment – while they all can.

“It is so, so important to make the very best of the time that we have got and we have to enjoy ourselves because otherwise we’re going to be sad, we’re definitely going to be sad later on, let’s not be sad now and, and bring it too early.”

As for Chris, he has an important piece of advice for anyone living with dementia:

“Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared. Live life. Take it by the danglies and run with it!”

A humbling philosophy for us all, whatever we may be facing.

Maria David is a Producer in BBC News

Panorama - Living With Dementia: Chris’s Story is on BBC One, tonight at 8pm

Chatting with the QI Elves about BBC Two's 'No Such Thing as the News'

2016-05-20T09:58:42+00:00

Ahead of a brand new current affairs series brought to you by the QI Elves, we spoke to 'No Such Thing as the News' presenters James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber.

'No Such Thing as the News' is based on your podcast 'No Such Thing as a Fish'. Tell us about the podcast for those of us who (er ... sorry) haven't heard it before.

Dan: The idea behind the podcast really came from our work as researchers on QI. So we’re constantly looking for interesting facts. I think the nature of how we talk generally in day to day discourse is that we normally start with ‘Oh, did you know?’ So, we’re having these conversations in the office where we work. Anything that doesn’t make it to a QI script was getting lost. So we were thinking that the conversations we were having as researchers were really fact-packed and fun. What would happen if we tried recording it? So we tried recording it and then we ended up doing it regularly.

James: Yeah, we accidentally released it, didn’t we?

Dan: Yep, we really did. We were making it as a pilot to show to John Lloyd. We transferred it to John via a Soundcloud account but we’d left it open to everyone. You, James, mentioned it to a few of your friends on Twitter, and before we knew what was going on we had hundreds of listeners.

What do you think accounted for that initial surge in popularity?

Anna Ptaszynski: One thing which was really helpful was that John Lloyd who had started the original QI Twitter feed had been tweeting interesting facts twice a day. That feed now has 800,000 followers. That was a really useful springboard. I think the growth in the audience is really fantastic – there are a lot of people who listen to the podcast who don’t necessarily listen to QI.

Dan: I think it’s a good pub-type conversation. There are no opinions, or angles, or comedy. We really just chat through facts. We’ll just have a conversation on the podcast where one person will say one fact and someone else will throw something else in. I think people who are listening like learning new facts and they like hearing us just having a conversation.

I think too that people who are listening were interested in hearing who exactly us QI Elves were – we have Stephen Fry to thank for that for introducing the idea of the QI Elves in the TV show. That might have been a bit of the attraction for new listeners.

What sort of person is a QI Elf? They sound very hard-working and instantly likeable. Do you recognise something of yourself in the label you’ve been given?

James: I think a QI Elf is a particular kind of person. They read everything they can find. They’re really curious and interested in things. Whenever they see that one fact that makes you go ‘wow’, its not that they just read it, they want to share it with one another. And I think that’s something we have in common with each other actually.

How did you go from podcast to TV? Was that a straightforward, ‘no-brainer’ kind of idea?

Dan: We’ve been going for two years now. There’s been little progressions which have take us to this place. So for a long time we’ve been recording the podcast in the office all together. Then we started to think about how it might work in front of a live audience. So, we tried that and then the event grew and grew, and we started doing bigger shows with a slightly more visual element.

Then we had an opportunity to do a live event at a comedy venue in Greenwich so we tried out filming it with a view to putting it on YouTube. When we edited the video together we realised that we had something really interesting. It looked really good to us.

John Lloyd had a look at it too. He liked it. And that’s when we started thinking with him, ‘well, if we were to make this a TV show, what would make it a good TV show?’ That’s when we started thinking that the best place to start would be picking out something topical from each week and talking about the fascinating facts which emerge from those topical stories. When we’d agreed on that idea, that’s when we pitched the idea. It all happened really quite quickly from there.

How do you know when something is interesting? It depends on whether the audience knows it already. So how do you know?

James: I’ve been doing QI for about 12 years and I think you just get a nose for it. It’s just something you discover which when you’ve discovered it you want to tell other people. It may sound rather twee, but it’s the sort of thing where if I find it interesting I’m hoping that other people find it interesting as well. You have to trust that’s going to happen.

Anna: It’s not a foolproof process necessarily. I think everyone knows what’s interesting really. When you’re in a group of people and you’ve got something that you really really want to share because you know they will also find it interesting, then that’s the one. Everyone instinctively knows that. It’s just about reading through loads and loads of material and being really brutal, identifying that information that you would share with eight people in a pub and they wouldn’t be bored or feigning interest.

James: It’s a bit like a joke. The way you phrase a fact is that there has to be things in there which people already understand. And then there needs to be a pay-off which is the thing they haven’t heard before. It’s about taking the mundane or the familiar, and then doing a twist on it.

Dan: I think its got to be personal. You’ve got to find it interesting otherwise why would you share it? It’s a gut thing. I think we’re all basically Jedis and we were born with the force.

'No Such Thing as the News' begins on Friday 20 May 2016 at 11.05pm on BBC Two

How the new partnership with local press will work

2016-05-13T10:37:24+00:00

Controller of English Regions, David Holdsworth, explains how the BBC will work with other organisations to ensure that local life is well reported. This article was originally published in the Press Gazette on Friday 13 May, 2016.

The partnership plans announced yesterday represent a new commitment by the BBC to local news. The plans haven’t been put together lightly. It has taken two years to get to this point, with our Local Journalism Working Group and the News Media Association working hard to come up with an agreement that works for all.

The result is a ground-breaking partnership. We will continue to compete editorially and to provide our own local news online, on radio and on television but we will be taking innovative steps to work with other organisations to ensure that local life is well reported and local decision-makers are better scrutinised. We feel there is a benefit not just to BBC audiences but society more widely by working in partnership: we have much in common and we all recognise the benefit of a thriving and diverse sector.

As an idea, the news bank illustrates how we can partner with other organisations. We intend to make all our local video and audio content available to third parties to use on their local websites, once it’s been broadcast or published by us. Other news providers get access to high quality content and the BBC’s journalism reaches more people. We need to fully understand how this might impact on those people currently selling video in this market but in principle it is a great way to get more value from existing content.

The idea of funding a new cohort of reporters to ensure that local democratic institutions get the attention they deserve was a controversial one. In the discussions that have taken place of the last twelve months we’ve allayed the fear that this is about BBC expansion to the extent that we’ve agreed to provide more reporters than first envisaged. There will be 150 new journalists reporting on councils and public bodies, employed by existing news providers and making their stories available to all news outlets in the area.

We are serious about being better partners. If you care passionately about your audience and treasure the trust they place in you, your desire to maintain the highest possible standards can make you an awkward bedfellow. But openness and collaboration is the spirit of the digital age and we are doing a number of things to demonstrate that: we’ve formalised our stance on crediting other people’s stories, we’ve committed to providing more links to other sources of news, we’ve started to talk to bloggers and small news publishers about how we can work together.

As a publicly-funded organisation we have an obligation to not just serve our own audiences but also to help ensure that the media landscape in general benefits from our presence. Sharing content in this way will not homogenise local news in the UK. There will still be competition for stories, different agendas and plenty of choice. But it will make material available that we know will usefully support other news providers, large and small.

We are witnessing the beginning of a new era and it feels good, but now the hard work really begins as we work together to get everything ready to go at the start of next year. Watch this space.

David Holdsworth is controller of BBC English Regions.

This article was originally published by Press Gazette on Friday 13 May, 2016.
Read the 'BBC seeks views of community news websites and bloggers' press release on the BBC Media Centre website.
Read more from David Holdsworth on the About the BBC Blog.

25 years of BBC World News

2016-03-04T13:54:03+00:00

To mark 25 years of BBC World News Hannah Khalil interviewed Chair of Global News Ltd Fran Unsworth about the past, present and future of the BBC's international news service.

Why was the BBC World News channel set up?

BBC World News – the BBC’s international 24-hour news channel – was set up 25 years ago at a time when other broadcast organisations were starting continuous television news services. The BBC has always been at the forefront of technological change, and with BBC World News we maintained our position at the forefront.

In a way the channel is more relevant than ever. In the 25 years since it was set up the world has become much more globalised. It’s impossible now for a media company that wants to be taken seriously – even by its domestic audience - to think that it would not have an international presence.

BBC World News has enormous reach around the world too. 85 million people a week tune into the news channel every week. If you add in the international website it goes up to 105 million around the world. That is a significant number of people consuming the BBC. It brings credit back to the BBC and it makes us an international brand. I think it brings credit back to Britain as well.

What impact did moving World Service staff to Broadcasting House have?

When BBC News all came together in this building – Broadcasting House - it made a big difference to us, because largely television was done from Television Centre and the World Service came from Bush House. Now we are all together. It’s made it easier for more services across the BBC to access expertise of people in the language services for example.

There’s much more sharing of information too - everyone’s in the same meetings, sharing staff, sharing ideas, sharing content. So, quite often material that runs on World News will also appear in another version on the website and World Service radio, and on domestic radio and TV. There’s much more sharing in every sense done as a result of moving into this building. That makes for richer content for our audience.

How has BBC World News changed over the past 25 years?

World News has evolved but I don’t think it has changed. The fundamental mission - to shine a light on all corners of the world, help the world communicate and understand each other better - is why the BBC was set up in the first place, echoing the ‘nation shall speak peace unto nation’. So, in that respect the role of BBC World News doesn’t really change. Obviously what has developed are the techniques, the technologies, and the mechanisms that you use to deliver it. So I’m sure that if you looked at what we were putting out 25 years ago on our international news channel, it would look quite different from what we are doing today. The purpose remains fundamentally the same.

Thinking about those technologies the biggest change has to be the birth of the internet. That changed everything. It changed the way people received the news, the devices they receive it on, it changed what they want to consume as a result of the devices that they are using it on. Television remains powerful - people still come to television in the event of a big story. Television is about the power of pictures, because people need to experience the physical embodiment of something. But television is also about the shared experience of a big story as well. So when something huge happens, people’s instincts are to turn on the television and see what’s happening, follow it and have the BBC’s full range of experts to guide them through it. Television remains a really important mechanism by which people receive news, despite the growth of mobile, tablet, or desktop. I don’t see that going away any time soon.

How has the job of the BBC World News journalist changed?

It is different now. 25 years ago we were largely platform specific. So, if you were a TV journalist you were a TV journalist; if you were a radio journalist you just did radio; and if you were a writer for the website that was what you did. Now successively we’ve changed all that and the World News journalist has to be able to do all of those things. Because those are the services that the BBC provides, and it’s not just an efficiency argument, it’s about access, so if you’ve got - as we‘ve got today - Lina Sinjab in Beirut, doing the story there about the humanitarian situation in Syria, she’s there for BBC Arabic outlets, she’s there for English language outlets, she’s there for the television, the radio, the web. All platforms need and want to make use of her because she’s the only one on the ground there who is able to cover the story. But of course it’s not just Lina it’s her team as well, so it’s her camera operator, her producer they’ll all be part of that process of turning it out for everybody. So all World News journalists have to be more skilled in many ways and there’s a huge amount of pressure for them on a big story.

What’s been the biggest story for World News?

I think the biggest story in the last quarter of a century would probably be 9/11 because it really fundamentally changed the geopolitics of the world. It presented the most enormous challenge to Western values, way of life, democracies which we are of course living with today but in evolved guises, it’s still very much there. But in terms of important changes over the last 25 years - obviously 9/11 was a seismic news story but if you had to say, well what was the most important thing that has happened, maybe you would say the invention of the world wide web, because arguably that has had a greater impact on changing people’s lives.

What does the future hold for BBC World News?

As for what’s in the future of BBC World News –I could sit here and try to predict how people were going to consume news and I haven’t got the answers to that. So, I’ll settle for more mobile, cheaper data packages, more video. At the moment, people around the world struggle to download too much – probably that will all change. But these are not really the ‘next big things’, often people have failed to predict those: like SMS messaging – who knew that would take off when it did, or social media.

BBC World News will continue to be very important, because it’s in English. English is the key language of the world – it’s not the biggest spoken, that’s Chinese. But in terms of a language that unites the world, English has an absolutely crucial role to play and always will have. So we absolutely have to be thinking hard about what we do in English in terms of delivering news for the whole of the world. As long as people are still consuming news then will still have a role to play.

Fran Unsworth is Chair of Global News Ltd.

Find out where and how to watch BBC World News
Read the press release about the history of BBC World News on the BBC Media Centre website.

The future of BBC News

2016-01-08T11:36:44+00:00

As an organisation, we are set for a defining year.

A year ago, people across the BBC worked together to create a report on our industry: the Future of News. Over the next three months, I’d like to draw up plans for ourselves: the Future of BBC News.

Technology is transforming the news. Audience expectations are changing, too. And the funding settlement for the BBC requires both cuts and the reallocation of spending.

We are going to have to make choices.

We’re going to start by opening up. We will share as much information as possible. Then, we’re going to listen hard. We’re going to encourage discussion across News of the options open to us. And, then, we’re going to choose. We will distill the ideas into a programme of reforms and investments.

We start from a position of strength.

But we can’t afford to do everything.

BBC News must contribute its share to achieve the £150 million of annual savings required to reach the shortfall to 2017 caused by the decline in TV household penetration. BBC News is committed to £5 million as part of this effort. As I said last year, we are also looking to make savings in how we run BBC Online; I will lay these out when I present the findings of the Online Creative Review.

The advertising outlook for BBC World News and bbc.com has become more difficult, which will require savings in Global News Ltd.

The BBC World Service has been awarded £35 million by the Government in the next financial year and £85 million in each of the three following years. We are now getting to work on implementing plans that will grow our global audience.

And by the spring we have to present a plan of how we propose to meet BBC News’ share of the £550 million annual savings required by 2021/22.

And this is the task of the Future of BBC News project. It is to set out how we are going to operate in the next Charter period.

We’ve identified four main areas where we think we will need to consider changes.

First, output. Where do we think people are going to watch, listen to, and get their news, and what do we want to do about it?

Second, content. What can we do to tell the story better?

Third, how do we ensure BBC News serves all audiences in the UK, regardless of age, identity, income, gender or geography? Young people are consuming less and less traditional media – how do we cater for them?

And fourth, the way we work. How do we invest in people, reduce costs, increase opportunity and improve the working culture?

Today, we have questions, not decisions. This is not an announcement of job cuts. It’s not even a statement on a savings target. It’s about setting our priorities.

The BBC is the most trusted brand in news. We are vigilant about our values. We are courageous and intelligent in our journalism. And we are leading the way in innovation in our industry. The choices we make now will determine the future of arguably the greatest journalistic organisation in the world.

James Harding is Director, News and Current Affairs

Three Days of Terror: Charlie Hebdo Attacks

2016-01-07T16:10:10+00:00

Paris, Friday 13 November. It's around 6pm and we're finishing the last interview of the day at Good Light Studio, a converted print factory on Rue Godefroy Cavaignac in the 11ème arrondissement. At the far end of the street, where it meets the buzzy thoroughfare of the Rue de Charonne, young people gather at La Belle Equipe, a lively neighbourhood bar with a pleasant terrace on the street.

In three and a half hours two young Frenchmen will empty their assault rifles into the throng at the Belle Equipe, killing 19. Minutes after that, the massacre at the Bataclan will begin. As midnight approaches a couple of hundred young people will lie bleeding in the darkness of the theatre while heavily-armed policemen wait outside the theatre. Dozens of injured youngsters have already bled out and lie sprawled in the mosh pit under a pall of gunsmoke.

When the shooting is over in the small hours of Saturday morning the man now sitting in front of me - Professor Jean Pierre Tourtier - will move among the wounded, triaging with quick efficiency, trying to save as many ebbing lives as he can.

Right now, sitting in our little bohemian studio we know none of this. Right now Tourtier - Chief Medic of the Paris Fire Brigade - is wrapped in the yellow glow of the huge soft-light umbrella, facing my two video cameras. I'm surprised to see tears glistening behind his spectacles. His face quivers slightly as he struggles to maintain his composure. He is after all a soldier, a member of France's armed forces like all Paris firefighters. And now I'm surprised to feel a prickle of tears in my eyes too, as his parting words hit home...

I'm interviewing Tourtier for a documentary on the Charlie Hebdo attacks, which happened 10 months earlier in January. Tourtier was at an emergency medics' conference not far from the Charlie Hebdo office when a colleague, Patrick Pelloux, got a text saying there was gunfire in the offices of the satirical magazine. Tourtier and Pelloux hopped on a scooter and were the first rescuers to arrive at the scene of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, in a quiet side-street in the 11eme arrondissement. Figuring that in case the terrorists were still in the building it would be best to maximize their chances by taking different routes, Tourtier ascended in the elevator to Charlie Hebdo's second-floor office while Pelloux took the stairs.

At the time Tourtier had never spoken in public about the aftermath of the massacre at Charlie Hebdo. His precise descriptions of what he saw had a barely-suppressed intensity that took me by surprise: "The first thing I remember, even before I entered the Charlie Hebdo office - was the smell. A smell that was a mix of gunpowder and blood - that metallic smell of blood. Then I saw a pile of bodies. And someone at the back of the meeting room said - in a voice that was almost gentle - 'Monsieur, s'il vous plaît, aidez-moi'."

Tourtier went over everything he saw and felt with unsparing honesty. The small meeting-room at Charlie Hebdo was a mass of bodies, many with terrible wounds. The floor was awash with blood. Tourtier ran out of tourniquet material to staunch the bleeding and asked the surviving members of Charlie's editorial staff to give him their belts. When he called back to his base for backup the Fire Brigade dispatcher could not believe what he was hearing. We later recovered the audio recording of Professor Tourtier's call:

- This is Tourtier, I'm on site at Charlie Hebdo. We've got five critically wounded and 10 deceased.
- Two deceased?
- Ten
- Ten deceased?
- Ten deceased, yes
- Wow. Ten?? One-zero? Two times five??
- One-zero. Send trauma teams right now!

The dispatcher's incredulity was understandable. In January 2015 Paris had never experienced a terrorist attack of this magnitude. The crisis lasted three days and left 17 dead. It would be another 10 months before that total was eclipsed by the November 13 massacres, with 89 dead at the Bataclan theatre alone, just 500 yards down the boulevard from Charlie Hebdo.

Tourtier's parting words in his interview earlier that November evening electrified the studio and gave me renewed hope for France's struggle with its contingent of home-grown terrorists: "Yes, the terrorists will risk their lives for their ideas... But there are many French people," and now Tourtier's voice shook with a mixture of sentiment and steely resolve: "Medics, firefighters, gendarmes, policemen, ordinary citizens... who are also ready to risk their lives for their ideas." When Tourtier had finished his eyes were bright with tears. I cut the cameras and thanked him. As we were chatting after the interview I remarked casually that it wouldn't be long before the next attack, as I thought that in terms of security nothing had changed since January and the Charlie Hebdo attacks. There was nothing to prevent another, even deadlier attack from happening.

We said goodbye. Twenty minutes later I walked out of the studio onto Rue Godefroy Cavaignac and turned left towards the Voltaire metro station. Two hundred yards behind me at La Belle Equipe a small, friendly crowd was gathering at the bar, mostly waiters and waitresses from nearby restaurants, ordering what for many them would be their last few drinks. It was nearly seven o'clock.

This post was first published on Huffington Post

Watch 'This World - Three Days of Terror: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks' on BBC iPlayer

Three Days of Terror: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks

2016-01-07T15:44:39+00:00

Documentary filmmaker Dan Reed tells the story of the day he filmed a contributor for the This World documentary unaware of what was unfolding at the nearby Bataclan.

Why we are building stronger partnerships with local media

2015-09-08T14:48:44+00:00

Yesterday (Monday 7 September) Tony Hall set out plans for a more open BBC that works in partnership for the good of Britain, at home and abroad.

As part of this we’ve made some new proposals which build on the Local Journalism partnerships we have been managing for over a year, following our Revival of Local Journalism conference.

Since that conference I have been chairing a Local Journalism Working Group, with representatives from many of the local news organisations, that has wrestled with how the BBC can best help and how the sector can develop a more unified voice. Our proposals have therefore been developed following conversations with the industry in mind.

This subject matter is not without its controversy however, so I want to be clear about what our intentions here really are.

Our plans are about upholding local democracy and accountability. They are about being a good partner, using a licence fee backed model which seeks to help local journalism grow and thrive. They are designed to ensure audiences benefit from strengthened local news output, with local and regional press gaining access to additional resources and audio and visual content.

The local news sector is not a homogenous group. There are many voices, some with strong views. So let me be clear that our proposals are just that – proposals. They are not a move to make a more dominant or bigger BBC and such hyperbole is not helpful.

All of our proposals mark the start of a consultation process which aims to create a genuine partnership with the industry, so we welcome all views to shape the final proposals.

One of our proposals is to fund a network of 100 reporters from different organisations across the country. These reporters would provide impartial reporting on court, council and services to be used by the local news sector, as well as the BBC.

The suggestion that our plans to to introduce these reporters across the country are an “extension of the BBC the backdoor” is not correct. Any local news organisation that has concerns about an expanding BBC can in fact bid to provide reporters to the Network. They would then be based in that organisation for the benefit of the whole news sector in that region. Bids could come from local and regional papers, agencies, journalism start-ups or citizen bloggers, as well as BBC teams, providing that bidders are both reputable and can meet the BBC Editorial Standards and Guidelines.

As part of our conversations with the industry we welcome a full and frank discussion about how we can offer guarantees that many of the reporters will come from organisations outside the BBC.

We know that the need for more reporters varies across the country and in different local and regional media organisations, so we’ll be asking the industry where they most need this resource. We will also take into account the anticipated pressure on the local news that further political devolution may bring.

So, we are at the beginning of a process to agree what all the final service will look like.

We have also announced plans for a Local News Bank to share audio and video content, making it available for immediate use by any local and regional online news outlet.

In addition we have proposed a Data Journalism Hub in partnership with a leading University, which would make BBC expertise in data journalism available to local newspapers. This is both about the BBC partnering more closely with the industry than ever before, as well as creating new and exciting content together for audiences across the country.

Our proposals follow other established initiatives to partner better with the local news sector. Earlier this year we began improved linking and credits to external local news sources, from BBC Local Live streams online. Roll out is expected to be complete by the middle of 2016.

We’ve also started a consultation with community news websites or ‘hyperlocals’ to see how we can partner with them better, direct BBC audiences to the best stories online and ensure the right credit is given to external news sources.

The feedback from the sector on the work we’ve already begun has been largely positive, but some have said what we are already doing does not go far enough. We weren’t being bold enough, or making a real impact. That’s why I firmly believe that the proposals announced yesterday are the right direction of travel for the BBC and for the industry.

We are now seeking the views of all voices across the sector to shape the new proposals into something that really works for all. I look forward to discussing them with industry representatives when the Local Journalism Working Group meets in the next few weeks.

David Holdsworth is the controller of BBC English Regions

Read Tony Hall sets out our plans for the BBC's programmes and services
Read the report The Future of the BBC 2015
Also see the press release on the Media Centre - An open, more distinctive BBC
And read Tony Hall's speech in full