About the BBC Feed

Reporting on a pandemic while trying to keep staff safe

2020-03-31T08:15:55+00:00

John Beattie broadcasts from home

These are difficult and worrying times for all of us. For staff at the BBC, like everywhere else, there are constantly escalating stresses and strains, both at work and in our personal lives.

In BBC Scotland we are acutely aware that what we do each day has never been more important to our audiences than it is now. The quality, accuracy, clarity and trustworthiness of the public service broadcasting that we are producing has a vital role to play at this moment of national jeopardy.

We know it's vital because people in Scotland are turning to the BBC in record numbers, more than to any other broadcaster, because they trust us to give them the facts.

A few examples: Over the past couple of weeks audiences for Reporting Scotland on BBC One at 6.30pm have topped 700,000, figures we haven’t seen since the Beast from the East swept through the country two years ago.

On the day when the Prime Minister and First Minister announced lockdown, a special live programme, produced by The Nine team, was watched by more than a million people.

And hundreds of thousands are tuning in to our special additional Politics Scotland programmes each day to cover the Scottish government briefings on Coronavirus. These usually go out live on BBC One Scotland, the BBC Scotland channel, Radio Scotland, and are streamed live on the BBC Scotland News website.

The Nine on the BBC Scotland channel has recorded the highest ever audience since it launched just over a year ago.

On Radio Scotland, we’ve had loads of appreciation for our new schedule of news programmes across the day, starting at six every morning with Gary Robertson and Laura Maxwell on Good Morning Scotland. We’ve added in - for our radio audiences across the whole day - updates on breaking news, even on our non-news programming.

Good Morning Scotland presenter Gary Robertson broadcasts from home during the Coronavirus crisis

And our BBC Scotland News website, with its live pages, analysis and context, has doubled its readership.

But the BBC - not surprisingly - is not immune from the impact of the virus. More than ten per cent of BBC Scotland’s workforce is either self-isolating, shielding or actually unwell, and sadly we can only expect that figure to grow.

We’re making changes to the way we work - for example, reducing the numbers of people in our TV and radio studios, so that we can comply with the two metre social distancing rules. Most of our interviewees appear via Skype. Our radio presenters, including Gary Robertson and Laura Maxwell on Good Morning Scotland and Drivetime host John Beattie, are presenting many of their programmes from home - from sitting rooms, attics and kitchens. Even Judith Ralston and the rest of our weather team are, for some of their time, working from home.

BBC Scotland weather presenter Judith Ralston works from home

Although our reporters and technical staff are designated as key workers and are able to move around legally to do their jobs, we are limiting their movement as much as possible. Last week we ran a story on Reporting Scotland about the effect of the virus on Arran without any of our staff travelling there: All the material was filmed for us by the local residents.

We’re moving staff from other production areas into news, while still trying to protect as much of our non-news programming as possible: In the absence of live sport and other programmes, we’ve discovered huge audience enthusiasm for classic comedy and sport.

In the space of just a few weeks, our business has been transformed. And the effect of our staff shortages means that something has had to give. We’ve had tough decisions to make about where we cut back. I never want to lose any output, but we just don’t have the people now to carry on with everything we do.

So yesterday we’ve stopped - temporarily - our short Breakfast TV bulletins. It’s a decision we’ve reluctantly had to take across the whole of the BBC in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in order to protect our output through the rest of the day. The Breakfast programme will of course still be on the air, but without our brief inserts of news from Scotland, the other nations and the English regions. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

For our legions of regular viewers at breakfast time in Scotland a full news service can still be found on BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal (for Gaelic speakers), and the BBC Scotland News website.

In addition to pausing the Breakfast bulletins, we are also having to reduce the length of some of our Gaelic news programmes; we’ve temporarily stopped making The Edit and Seven Days, our weekly news review on the BBC Scotland channel. We may need to look further at what news output we need to stop doing while Coronavirus is at its peak.

So the suspension of our Breakfast bulletins is not some conspiracy, as a few people on social media have suggested over the weekend. It’s about the realities of coping with high levels of sickness, realities also faced by network news teams in London, who are having to cut back and simplify their output; and by our colleagues at STV, who have announced cutbacks to what they can do. Coronavirus is affecting everyone and everything we all do.

In these anxious days and weeks, what we do at BBC Scotland News has never been more important to our audiences across the country. I’m very proud of the dedication and commitment of our news teams in providing the information that everyone is crying out for. And very grateful to the millions who are trusting the BBC to help them make it through the biggest national crisis most of us have ever known.

A version of this article appeared in The Scotsman

BBC News and Coronavirus

2020-03-26T12:51:52+00:00

BBC News has never had a more important role to play. Millions of people are turning to the BBC for accurate information they can trust in these strange and difficult times.

We’re committed to bringing you a continuous news service during this crisis, as I announced last week. Current and anticipated staff shortages have meant we’re streamlining our schedules, suspending some programmes and sharing staff between others, and the way we’re doing things already looks a bit different. This is a rapidly evolving situation.

Many of our staff are now working from home (which is sometimes giving viewers an unexpected insight into the kitchens, attics and basements of familiar BBC presenters). But many cannot - including the technical staff who keep us on air and some of our reporters across the UK.

It’s our responsibility to you, our audiences, to report ‘on the ground’. To show you what is happening across the country and the world; to record the effects of the government’s measures to fight the virus; to talk to the staff on the frontline of the NHS; to chronicle how the UK is faring during its ‘lockdown’.

And, as ever, to question, explain, and give context to what is happening.

That’s why BBC journalists and operational technical staff have been designated by the Government as key workers, and why some are still outside when so many people can’t be.

But we, like everyone else, have to do things differently. We have to prioritise everyone’s safety. And, like everyone else, we’re learning and changing things as the situation progresses.

We have to question ourselves before every interview - could we be doing this via phone or video call?

You’ve probably noticed our new ‘socially distanced interviews’ where boom microphones are rather more visible than usual.

You might also hear a bit more background noise than you’re used to when we’re not using our normal microphones.

We’re cutting down on everyone’s travel by making more use of our network of local reporters around the UK, as well as around the world.

And as you’d expect, we’ve tightened hygiene and safety measures inside and outside our offices, to avoid contact between colleagues. For example, our presenters are now doing their own make-up.

So things may look and sound a bit different and we might need to make further changes to how we do things as time goes on. But we’ll be with you throughout this emergency.

Making BBC News online even more relevant to you

2019-03-06T11:05:50+00:00

We are committed to reflecting the stories, passions and identities of every nation, place and community of the UK and it’s been a busy time, particularly north of the border over the last couple of weeks. Our new BBC channel in Scotland launched with impressive figures and offers fantastic content, including a nightly news hour called The Nine. But that’s not the only major update we’ve made to ensure people coming to the BBC from around the UK get even more tailored experiences - increasingly based on where you live.

Tony Hall, Director-General of the BBC has previously talked about our commitment to the nations of the UK by making significant changes and major investments in them, including a new channel, more programming from the nations and further digital developments. He also talked about the need for our services to become increasingly more tailored and personalised to the people that use them - especially online.

That’s why today we’ve made an update to our BBC News front page in the UK for people who are signed-in to their BBC Account.

This means that for the first time, the BBC’s main news front page will offer a tailor-made service for people who are signed in to their BBC Account - with the section at the top of the page highlighting more relevant stories from a specific nation. So, for example, if you’re reading the news in Wales, your front page will blend the biggest global, UK and Welsh stories. The same applies for England, Northern Ireland and Scotland - as well as an overall UK option.

This change will ensure the way many people come to BBC News online properly reflects the realities of different parts of the UK - with an appropriate balance between major UK and international coverage and those stories with particular significance in a nation - such as devolved areas including health, education and politics.

Select your nation

If you’d prefer to keep your front page as it is - and have the UK-wide version, we’ve made it really easy to switch back.

You just need to click on the ‘Select your nation’ button, and select UK.

We really hope you enjoy these changes to make it even easier to find news that’s more relevant to you. We’re making this change to the website at the moment - so the app (which can already be personalised) will not be affected for now.

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.

A minute of inspiration on International Women’s Day

2018-03-08T12:35:00+00:00

Four inspiring women from across the BBC have taken part in 60-second quickfire video interviews for International Women’s Day - discussing their own inspirations and tips for the next generation wanting to follow in their footsteps.

The videos feature television presenter and journalist, Stacey Dooley, BBC Radio 1 DJ and presenter, Clara Amfo, a producer on Blue Planet II, Orla Doherty, and Newsbeat Editor, Debbie Ramsay.

In each one minute clip, the women also discuss their career highlights to date, their most challenging moments and their most valuable advice on how to succeed in their line of work.

Known for her intrepid and tenacious reporting style, television presenter and journalist, Stacey Dooley, has become a household name with a string of gritty and hard-hitting BBC Three documentaries under her belt. In her interview, Stacey reveals the scariest moment of her career so far, the biggest influence in her life and gives her professional advice to aspiring reporters: “Pick projects that you’re passionate about, and don’t feel like you’ve got to conform or behave a certain way.”

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/bbcthree/status/971672009615831040

BBC Radio 1 DJ and presenter Clara Amfo has had a glittering career in the music industry. With a voice that can be recognised across the nation, Clara has a regular presenting slot on the Radio 1 weekday schedule, she has interviewed the biggest names in the music industry, and presented from some of the most prestigious music festivals and awards ceremonies. Watch the clip to discover Clara’s scariest interview, the DJ who inspires her the most, and, most importantly, her top advice for aspiring music presenters and DJs: “Keep creating your own content, don’t wait for the door to knock.”

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/BBC/status/971664316712849408

Fearless, adventurous, and with a lifetime pursuit to unearth and explore the undiscovered secrets of the ocean, Orla Doherty is one of the producers behind the breath-taking Blue Planet II on BBC One. In her interview, Orla shares what inspires her, the best and worst thing about travelling in a submarine, and gives her advice to aspiring film and nature enthusiasts - including why all you need is a smartphone to hone in on your skills.

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/BBCEarth/status/971686966726156289

One of the BBC’s most experienced multi-platform editors, Debbie Ramsay is currently the editor of BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra’s Newsbeat. In her one minute clip, Debbie gives an insight into her job, reveals who inspires her, and offers her top three tips to aspiring editors who have a drive to succeed in the media industry.

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/BBCNewsbeat/status/971724719782166529

And if you are in search of further inspiration look no further than the BBC:

BBC Somali: For the first time, BBC Somali hosts an all-female discussion and tells the stories of women across the region as part of a week of special content to coincide with International Women’s day. Running from the 3-8 March 2018, special content can be heard and seen on BBC Somali TV, Radio and BBCSomali.com.
BBC Radio 6 Music: On BBC Radio 6 Music, in her show this Friday night (midnight-2am), Nemone interviews with The Black Madonna - DJ Marea Stamper - who picks her five favourite tracks by female artists. Singer-songwriter and composer Mary Epworth will be the guest Resident sound-tracking the show. Plus, all the music played during the whole show will be tracks by female artists including: Sounds of Blackness – the pressure (Frankie Knuckles mix), The Black Madonna – He is the Voice I Hear; Robyn – Indestructable (the Black Madonna remix) and Loleata Holloway – We’re Getting Stronger.
More on BBC Radio 6 Music: From Time’s Up to "Step Up?!” - An International Women’s Day Investigation. In recent months the conversation about inequality in the music business has been louder than ever. To mark International Women’s Day, 6 Music’s Georgie Rogers takes a look at representation of females in music: Shirley Manson, Wolf Alice, Royal Blood, Jessie Ware, music writer Jessica Hopper (Pitchfork, Spin, Guardian) and many more chat about the changes afoot in the music business.
Even more of BBC Radio 6 Music: This weekend, 6 Music is celebrating three of Mary Anne’s favourite new female artists as part of a post-International Women’s Day show. There's profiles of Anna Von Hausswolff, Flohio and Aldous Harding, and also a look at an exhibition in Manchester, ‘Suffragette City’, which champions the continued role of influential females in making Manchester world-renowned for melody.

BBC Radio 5 Live: Three young women with cancer are launching a brand new podcast with BBC Radio 5 live. You, Me and The Big C explores life with cancer through the eyes of three friends who are too busy living to worry about dying. Presenters, Rachael Bland, Deborah James and Lauren Mahon are the powerhouses behind the pod, talking about how they all juggle jobs, parenting, and busy social lives with The Big C. You, Me and The Big C is available to download for free via the BBC Radio 5 live website or your usual podcast store.
Technology and Creativity blog: Meanwhile, over on the Technology and Creativity blog Angela Stevenson, Senior Technologist, BBC Design & Engineering describes some of the inspirations for her career choices to mark International Women's Day in Inspiring the next generation.
BBC Radio 4 Extra: R4 Extra presenters introduce the voices of inspirational women from the BBC archives in International Women's Day: Voices of Inspirational Women.

Lemurs hilariously hijack BBC Look East report, and it goes global

2018-01-09T14:17:46+00:00

Alex Dunlop, BBC News Correspondent and Look East regular, was filming an assignment at Banham Zoo in Norfolk. He was covering the annual ‘stock take’ or animal count, when he thought it would be a good idea to enter the lemur enclosure to film his piece to camera. Here he explains how, in hindsight, he probably should have chosen a less enthusiastic animal...

BBC reporter Alex Dunlop encounters lemurs at Banham Zoo

It’s a tad surreal seeing this video go global. I can see why they call it “viral”. I’m watching it on the internet, spreading out like ink on blotting paper... first on social media sites like twitter and instagram. It then takes foothold in another country and then another continent. By then the traction is phenomenal - online news websites take it on, followed soon after by broadcasters worldwide.

Articles from around the world about Alex's encounter with lemurs at Banham Zoo

Doing a piece to cameras with a few lemurs seemed like a good idea before I entered their pen, but quickly descended into farce. Break it down and three things were at play here - a brilliant edit by the BBC East online team, greedy ring-tailed lemurs and (did you spot it?) a dominant rogue red ruffed lemur which was trying to dominate and drive away the others. That’s what made them flip - that and handful of tasty nibbles.

Dunlop's report even makes the NBC Morning Show in America

To think, thirty years in the business reporting on serious-minded issues from places like Afghanistan and Iraq, and my journalistic epitaph could be this... being mobbed by a bunch of Lemurs in Norfolk.

For the record, only one injury was sustained at Banham Zoo - my pride.

Alex Dunlop is a BBC News Correspondent.

The clip that went viral on twitter was made up from outtakes of a rehearsal for a report that was broadcast on BBC Look East on Thursday 4 January, 2018

Reality Check: BBC journalists enable young people to tell the difference between real and fake news

2017-12-06T10:30:00+00:00

James Harding introduces a new initiative helping young people identify real news – giving them the tools to filter our fake and false information. The new service is open to all secondary schools and sixth forms across the UK and is targeted at 11-18 year olds. A series of events, roadshows and online resources will be rolled out from March 2018 - sign up here for more information.

Fake news has always been with us. Propaganda, disinformation, exaggeration, elision or suppression of facts, the list goes on and on. But now we have a name to cover all of it.

The distribution of news, real and fake, has accelerated with the times; the traditional media – newspapers, television, radio, have been engulfed by new forms, chief among them social media. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram carry information directly to countless millions every second of every day.

But this information is frequently, perhaps mostly, unmediated – there is no one checking that it is true, or fair, or even legal.

Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap, wrote in a piece in Axios “content designed to be shared by friends is not necessarily content designed to deliver accurate information. After all, how many times have you shared something you've never bothered to read?”

And of course it might be worse than that. As Danny Finkelstein wrote recently in The Times, fake news can be “a deliberate act of forgery. It presents as fact, as news, something that has not happened at all. It uses all the tools at the forger’s disposal to present as true something that is utterly false…The motive to fabricate such news varies. It can be the work of foreign powers hoping to destabilise liberal democracies, but is more likely just to be someone trying to make advertising revenue out of the traffic or hoping to advance a cause. And some people, of course, will do it just because they enjoy making mischief.”

Here at the BBC we have established and reinforced our Reality Check service to address the issues of trust and fake news. Reality Check subjects the claims of politicians and others to rigorous factual checking and presents the results in an impartial and, we hope, unambiguous way.

Today, I’m proud to say, we are taking another step that will enable young people to tell the difference between what is real and what is fake, what is true and what is false.

We are offering as many as a thousand schools mentoring in person, online, or at group events from BBC journalists – including some familiar faces like Huw Edwards, Tina Daheley, Nikki Fox, Kamal Ahmed and Amol Rajan.

All schools will have free access to online materials including: classroom activities; video tutorials; and an interactive game developed by the Aardman studios where the player gets the chance to find out what it is like being a BBC journalist in the heart of a bustling newsroom.

A Reality Check Roadshow will tour the country and local schools will be able to nominate their own Reality Checker pupils to attend one of a dozen regional events. Some will be invited to present on BBC’s School Report News Day in March 2018.

Truth matters. Nothing is more important for our young audiences than teaching them how to find it.

James Harding is Director of News and Current Affairs.

Read the press release detailing the scheme - BBC journalists return to school to tackle 'fake news'
Schools can sign up to be part of the pilot

Radio 4: Today at 60

2017-10-28T05:30:00+00:00

L-R: John Humphrys, Justin Webb, Nick Robinson, Sarah Montague, Jim Naughtie, Evan Davis, Garry Richardson, Mishal Husain

The radio programme that editor Rod Liddle described as ‘a light entertaining magazine programme… an oral Blue Peter for 60 year olds’ is 60 itself today.

The Today programme began life on Monday 28th October 1957 when the BBC Home Service launched a new morning programme presented by Alan Skempton and edited by Isa Benzie. According to Sue Macgregor, who presented Today from 1984-2002 the original programme was “built around Jack (De Manio)’s personality very much, so there was lots about food and booze in it, which were his great loves”.

Other presenters over the years included Michael Aspel (1970-1974), Barry Norman (1974-76), Des Lynam (1974-75),Gillian Reynolds (1976), Nigel Rees (1976–78), Libby Purves (1978–81) and Jenni Murray (1985–87).

Behind the mic at the Today Programme

What’s more a very young Prince Charles made his broadcasting debut on the Programme, talking to Jack De Manio about performing as a student in a show at Cambridge University.

However, it hasn’t all been smooth runnings over 60 years: De Manio started the programme on 31st March 1970 saying: “I got stuck in the loo, I’m sorry… I’m sorry about the beginning of this programme, I had a slight little bit of trouble”.

Sue Macgregor recalls on another occasion being so tired she fell asleep in the middle of her own question to Lord McGregor, Head of the Press Complaints Commission: “I remember waking up, as if out of a dream, conscious I was babbling nonsense… this isn’t a nightmare, this is really, really happening”.

Margaret Thatcher on the Today Programme

The programme interviewed countless people of note over the years; but influential figures also listened: Margaret Thatcher was a regular. Legend has it she phoned into the programme in 1988 because she had heard the bulletin announcing that Gorbachev would be cancelling his visit to London to return to the Soviet Union after the Armenian Earthquake. She wanted to the let the public know that she knew he wouldn’t be able to visit London and understood why.

Over 60 years the content and format of the Today programme has evolved; but from the outset world leaders, titans of business and industry, academics and activists alike have faced a grilling by the presenters. Its position as a Great British institution is as assured as ever, with over 7 million listeners regularly tuning in to Radio 4.

Jenni Murray, John Humphrys and Brian Redhead

To mark Today’s anniversary there will be a special broadcast from Wigmore Hall in front of a live audience, hosted by John Humphrys and Sarah Montague today (Saturday 28 October) from 7-9am. Highlights from the programme include:

Sue MacGregor doing a Reunion with a panel of former presenters such as Evan Davis and Ed Stourton
Mishal Husain chatting to John Simpson and Bridget Kendall on the great world events of the last 60 years
John Humphrys charting the history of political interview

Further special guests featured are: Alma Deutscher who has composed a 60th song which will be played out; and Monica Ali will be in conversation with James Naughtie.

It promises to be an informative and starry programme to mark 60 years of the Today Programme.

Find out more about the Today Programme
Follow @BBCr4today and #r4today #Todayat60 on Twitter

BBC School Report Sports Reporter scheme

2017-10-03T09:00:00+00:00

Margaret Burgin, the Senior Manager for BBC School Report, discusses why she is looking forward to launching the BBC School Report Sports Reporter scheme.

Working with young people all started for me in local radio at BBC Radio Sheffield where we hosted a “radio station” for the Sheffield Children’s Festival which featured young people who produced and presented their own news and programmes.

When BBC News decided to pilot the schools project which became BBC School Report, they invited me to an ideas day with other BBC staff with experience of working with schools, a really exciting day with like-minded colleagues.

I worked on School Report in the early days and then went off to other jobs so it was great to return last year and help to shape the project for a new generation of young people.

I passionately believe that we need to listen to the voices of our younger audiences so that we have an audience in the future, and I have always been impressed by the fresh ideas and sheer energy that young people bring to the news agenda.

BBC School Report is now in its 12th year. We work with about 1,000 secondary schools across the UK and this year we are including 16 – 18 year olds for the first time which means that sixth forms can take part too.

We are also inviting Youth centres and alternative provision to get involved so that we can feature stories from a really wide range of young people.

Launching the scheme

Opening up School Report to this older age group means that we get a lot of questions about careers with many young people hoping to find out more about what it’s like to work in the creative and media industries.

The BBC have a brilliant range of work experience, apprenticeships and trainee schemes but these are for people aged 18 and over and so out of range for most of our audience. We’ve had a lot of conversations in the office about providing more opportunities for under 18’s.

We’ve been working hard to come up with model that could offer real work experience for a younger age group and I am really pleased to be able to do this with our School Report Sports Reporter scheme.

The scheme, inspired by the BBC Kick Off Trainee Sports Reporter scheme, is working with BBC colleagues in our Nations and Regions to offer placements across the UK.

Young people aged 16-18 are invited to pitch an original sport story to BBC editors. Those with the best story ideas will get the opportunity to make their story at a nearby BBC station with the help of a local mentor.

The beauty of the scheme is that it benefits everyone. There are new, fresh and original stories for our local audiences, our staff work with young people and find out more about them and their lives, and a group of talented young people get a real experience of what it’s like to be a sports journalist at the BBC.

I have spent a lot of time in schools listening to the great ideas that young people have and I can’t wait to read the applications. The best bit will be watching, listening to and reading all the finished stories and featuring them on School Report News Day in March 2018.

What is also exciting is that this is not the only opportunity for young people this year at the BBC. Radio 5 Live are opening their doors for 11 - 15 year olds in their BBC Radio 5 Live’s Young Commentator of the Year Competition.

What this means is that 11 - 18 year olds, from all over the UK, have an opportunity to share their stories on the BBC.

How to apply

Applications for the BBC School Report Sports Reporter scheme launch 3 October via the BBC Careers Work Experience website.

You can follow the reporter’s journey via the BBC School Report Sports Reporter page.

Margaret Burgin is Senior Manager for BBC School Report

Find out more about BBC School Report

With good Grace: Katy Searle on Grace W Goldie, the woman who invented election broadcasting

2017-06-08T08:00:36+00:00

On the night of 23rd February 1950, BBC producer Grace Wyndham Goldie realised her dream and ushered in a new era of political broadcasting – the first ever election results programme. Years before Goldie had been warned off television, being told it would be of no importance in her lifetime. Well how times have changed…the BBC election results programmes are watched by millions eager to find out who will form the next government.

Goldie is a woman who pioneered her vision of election broadcasting at the BBC. I like the sound of her. Described as 'a small, birdlike woman with a striking finely chiselled face and a sharp questing mind' but also someone who could be 'difficult and capricious'. She was a woman it was said of 'iron whim'. You certainly need that if you work in political news.

When I first joined the BBC aged 19, I think it’s fair to say there were a lot more men in senior positions than women. Despite being told to go and get a good degree I decided hard work and perseverance would win the day. 27 years on, I now run the BBC’s Political Newsgathering and it’s a very different world to the one Grace Wyndham Goldie experienced. Not only am I surrounded by brilliant women AND men, we work in a news cycle that’s so fast, no-one sits down.

Katy Searle and Grace Wyndham Goldie (archive) talk about election coverage

In Goldie’s election night programme, she relied on maps stuck to walls and lists of which politician was up or down. Of course what Goldie did then was cutting edge however old fashioned it seems now when we have touchscreens and virtual reality graphics. Where there are comparisons to my world 67 years on are the judgements made about what news lines to run, the accuracy over policy details, the overwhelming importance of impartiality throughout all of the BBC’s coverage. The difference now is the speed of the news. The advent of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for example mean the story can change in a second. The parties’ spinners are ever present, ready to push a line, pull a story. The leaders may seem calm but behind the scenes they are learning their words, anticipating the questions. And if a story breaks while they’re on stage – well they just have to roll with it – but the press knows it and they know that too.

Despite the second female Prime Minister taking office last year, politics remains an area dominated by men. Although there’s been a big growth in recent years, still only 30% of MPs in the last parliament were women. Political broadcasting is changing too. Laura Kuenssberg is the BBC’s first female Political Editor, and I’m proud to work alongside her as well as the other women who now report on politics for the BBC. Though as we always say, and perhaps Goldie would too, it’s not about being a woman, it’s about getting it right.

Katy Searle is the BBC’s Editor of Political Newsgathering.

Election 2017 will air on BBC One and the BBC News Channel from 9.55pm on Thursday 8 June and will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast.

BBC announces plans for General Election 2017 special programmes

2017-05-08T11:00:13+00:00

Ten years ago, the idea of televised election debates in this country was still a pipe dream. Then the 2010 election came along and the mould was shattered - Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg, and David Cameron took part in the BBC's first TV debate. They’ve been a staple of campaigns ever since. In the referendum on Scotland’s independence. The election of 2015. And most recently during the EU referendum. More than 20 million people watched at least three minutes of one of the debate programmes on the BBC last June.

These TV moments give the public the chance to sit and listen to arguments put by all sides and to hear their questions answered – not, as is sometimes the case in the media, the trivia of the Westminster village.

That’s why we plan to do it all again this vote, as part of the most comprehensive package of election programming that will put you, the audience, at the heart of our coverage.

BBC One will put on a live BBC Election Debate hosted by Mishal Husain on 31 May from Cambridge. It will feature seven podiums for leading figures from Conservative, Labour, LibDem, SNP, Plaid Cymru, Green Party and UKIP spokespeople to put their cases forward to the public.

As we know, the Prime Minister has said she will not participate in a televised leaders’ debate. That is her right. We won’t be embarrassing anybody into taking part – there’ll be no empty chair or vacant podium on any BBC programme. Ultimately it is for each party to say who will participate. We are inviting them to put up for the debate the person that they think will best make their party’s case. We do this because we think it is right to host debates that give people the chance to see how the major parties match up against each other.

Rest assured, we’ll be putting your tough questions to all the party leaders across a series of programmes during the campaign. That will include bringing Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn in front of the same Question Time audience on the same night to be quizzed by the public.

We will scrutinise the Conservative and Labour leaders and we will do it in a way that asks the difficult questions, placing the audience and the choice at the heart of these primetime programmes. There will be two Question Time Specials, hosted by David Dimbleby, where the four main party leaders will face direct audience questions consecutively. Viewers in 2015 really connected with this format and the Question Time Special in Leeds was one of the most important and informative events of the 2015 General Election. So we are delighted to be putting it on air again.

We know our TV specials have helped galvanise people because the responses of the candidates can be compared and weighed up side-by-side, live. In all, we will put on more than ten hours of prime-time TV bringing the audience closer to what the big election choices are.

The BBC will be the place to come for expert coverage of that choice, not forecasting the race. In our programmes we will ask about the important public policies airing them to a large audience – they won't simply be a platform to repeat the slogans of political campaigning.

After all, this is a contest about the choices the next Government is going to make over the coming five years. We will examine what the most difficult and consequential issues are likely to be through our reporting, interviewing and by giving the public a platform to ask those questions of politicians, or to hear them asked on their behalf.

Multi-millions of voters watched the TV moments in the 2010 and 2015 General Elections, and we know that they were seen by audiences who don’t traditionally tune in to mainstream news programmes.

The Wembley Arena debate during last year’s EU Referendum was watched by nearly 700,000 young people. And the democratic process itself benefitted from that, with turnout in younger age groups higher in those elections with debates than recent campaigns without. And, at the last election three quarters of the Newsbeat debate audience said it helped them understand the issues better. Our final debate will be a Newsbeat one on Radio 1 and BBC One on 6 June.

As a Public Service Broadcaster, we count that as a success. We can see we have helped inform, one of the underlying principles for why the BBC exists. Our promise to the public during this election campaign is to give them reliable impartial news and a place where they can get beyond the noise to better understand the issues at stake.

The BBC will play to its strengths. Audience engagement. Accuracy. Impartiality. Expertise. It will be the home for real news and insight. It is why one of the things I’m especially excited about is the new Reality Check slot on the Sunday night News at Ten bulletin. Steph McGovern will be examining whether the big claims stand up to scrutiny.

There is no more important time to engage with the people of this country than now. When they want to hear from the politicians vying to lead the country. That is good for public service TV. That is good for democracy. That is firmly in the public interest.

Jonathan Munro, Head of BBC Newsgathering

Nick Robinson: the referendum is over - now the BBC must fight a new Brexit bias

2017-04-04T12:22:17+00:00

Welcome to another week of moaning about the BBC.

“Stop being so pessimistic. Stop talking the country down. Stop ignoring the will of the people.”

A week in which the stopwatches and calculators are out, as first one side, then the other, time our interviews and add up the number of Remainers and Leavers and so-called optimists and pessimists we invite on air. “Why are you taking the Government’s line? Why are you ignoring the views of the 48 per cent? Why are you letting yourselves be intimidated by the Brexiteers?”

And it doesn’t stop there. In letters and emails and tweets, the alleged tone of questions and the number of interruptions are assessed before being held up to public gaze as proof that this or that presenter and this or that programme is clearly biased. To which I say – ENOUGH! Leave it out. Remain calm.

The referendum is over. The duty we broadcasters had to “broadly balance” the views of the two sides is at an end. Why? Because there are no longer two sides, two campaigns, two rival sets of spokespeople reading out those focus-grouped slogans.

The BBC’s job is not to look over its shoulder wondering whether a report, interview or discussion will provoke letters of complaint or a tide of tweets from Remainers or Leavers – who, like fighters who emerge after months of hiding in a bush, seem not to accept that the war is over.

Our job, instead, is to keep our eyes firmly fixed on the audience as a whole – the people we serve – who, in the main, are not members of political parties or campaigns or, indeed, people who would dream of defining themselves by how they voted in the referendum. They are viewers, listeners and readers who want the most significant policy decisions to be taken in decades explained, analysed and scrutinised.

If company A announces that it will invest more in the UK and create more jobs, it’s not our duty to search for a company that says it will invest less, just to balance the news. And vice versa. We shouldn’t turn every news story into an excuse to ask, “Who was right about whether we should remain or leave?” Now that we are “taking back control” of our immigration, trade and industrial policies, there are new questions to ask.

In the week that Article 50 was triggered, ardent Leavers complained that too many Remainers were being heard on the BBC. What they failed to acknowledge is that many of their most prominent leaders – Messrs Johnson, Fox and Gove – seem remarkably reluctant to accept invitations to be interviewed. In the nine months since the referendum, not one of them has agreed to appear on Radio 4’s Today programme. Meantime, ardent Remainers bombarded the BBC with complaints that their pro-EU march hadn’t had the coverage it deserved, ignoring the fact that it was covered by all BBC news outlets.

Sure, it wasn’t given the prominence the marchers wanted, but that’s true of almost every march that fills the streets of London. Many people with strong views find it hard to accept that on the BBC they will often hear people they disagree with saying things they don’t like.

Their choice of newspaper, friends (real as well as on Facebook and Twitter) and protests reflect views they agree with. They find it hard to believe that “everyone” doesn’t think as they do – except for those whose views they despise who have somehow wooed or bullied the BBC into giving them disproportionate coverage.

The BBC has a commitment to what’s called “due impartiality”. Translated, that means we aim to get as close to the truth as we can each day – to weigh arguments, to assess the evidence, to ask difficult questions – and then be ready to listen and learn and correct any errors we may make.

We must, of course, ensure that we display no bias. The bias I worry about most is the bias against understanding.

Nick Robinson presents Today on Radio 4 and 'Political Thinking with Nick Robinson', part of The Westminster Hour, on Sundays on Radio 4

Disability Works: The idea behind the pitch

2017-02-20T17:30:07+00:00

Sometimes you identify an important issue at the right time and the story just seems to take off. That’s what happened with Disability Works. I pitched it and it became a special week of coverage across TV, radio and online exploring the experiences of disabled people in the workforce and as consumers. It started really as a way to inform audiences about the impacts business can have on people with disability. There are also a lot of disabled people watching the news who miss out on seeing people like themselves reflected in bulletins, so I was keen to address the stereotype of disabled people that we all too often see in the media. For every one of the superheroes climbing mountains or the wheelchair marathon runners, there are dozens of people quietly getting on with running their own business. I'm hoping that this week will go some way to addressing that.

I became a producer in the BBC Business unit nearly nine years ago. I had lived like a student for a long time. Sharing houses and living in squats. Dropping out of courses and not really caring. It was only when I found out I was going to be a dad that I finally thought about getting a serious job. I’d no idea though what that might be. I had started losing my eyesight in my early teens, and although I had had jobs before, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do the kind of things I’d done in the past. Working in warehouses or pumping petrol just wasn’t going to work. My eyesight wasn’t going to allow it. That’s when I had the lightbulb moment. Maybe I could be a journalist.

My mum had recently died and left me a bit of money. She’d always told stories about me as a young child sitting transfixed by the evening news. I used that bit of money to do a professional qualification in broadcast journalism, and luckily for me, I got the first job at the BBC I applied for.

When I was a young eager journalist I would be asked to fix a guest on the latest Bank of England interest rate decision or hear various business terms bandied about in planning meetings. I had no idea about terms like GDP or inflation I had to find out first what that was. All that meant I was soaking up lots of new information constantly. I think that disabled people have to work twice as hard sometimes to achieve the same outcome as anyone else, which means that planning ahead or devising strategies are a natural skill. I think it’s being able to hone these skills and realise their value that make disabled people great entrepreneurs, which is something I hope the Disability Works week across the BBC will highlight.

Throughout the week, we’ll be talking to men and women who have realised that starting their own business is right for them. The flexibility of being your own boss is an attractive proposition to many. We’ll have examples of people who’ve done that and against the advice perhaps of bank managers or financial advisors, have been able to come off benefits and start contributing to the economy.

I’m also keen to explore the value disabled people can offer business, both as employees and as customers. It’s obvious that the millions of people that live with a disability across the UK and the world can’t all start their own venture, so it’s important for other bosses to understand the value of diversity for their bottom line. Latest figures from the UK Department of Work and Pensions estimate the so called Purple Pound to be worth around £249billion to the treasury. That’s a lot of money, and if big business can get it right, a lot of loyalty.

Disabled employees are also a great tool for enlightened businesses to harness, and unfortunately it still is enlightened employers who are the ones willing to understand the value of a few slight tweaks. Apart from the fact that it’s illegal to discriminate on the grounds of disability, many employers will have concerns about the cost of making buildings accessible or having to pay for access technology. The truth is though that these slight tweaks can open up a whole new area of experience for their workforce. Being able to better reflect the changing face of the population means that business can develop better strategies for getting that fiver out of someone’s back pocket. It’s all about the bottom line and, as someone once said, the economy stupid.

The week is designed to show how everyone wants to be valued in what they do. No one is naive enough to think that this one week of coverage across the BBC will fix the disability employment gap, or that suddenly new disabled entrepreneurs will give the economy a huge injection, but if only one business owner decides to give a disabled person a chance in a job interview, or only one person decides to take that leap and start their own business, then it will all have been worth it. For me that will show the BBC works.

Johny Cassidy is a producer for the BBC Business and Economics Unit.

Read a press release about 'Disability Works' on the BBC Media Centre.
Find out more about the week of coverage on the BBC News website.
Follow the hashtag #DisabilityWorks on twitter throughout the week.
Read 'BBC News launches £1m scheme for journalists with disabilities in Disability Works week' on the BBC Media Centre.

Introducing BBC School Report 2017: The Pitch

2017-01-17T22:05:55+00:00

It’s ten years since the BBC launched BBC News School Report - a project aimed at engaging young people with the news and giving them a voice and a platform on which to tell their own stories. Since then we have worked with over three hundred thousand young people and schools across the UK.

How much things have changed since 2007 – particularly in the world of communication and technology. In our launch year Apple launched the first generation iPhone. Today young people are growing up in a world where they can consume and generate media on a scale never experienced before. They can access, share and create content - videos, vlogs, pictures and articles - independently and in a huge variety of ways.

It’s why after 10 years BBC School Report is changing and developing too.

This year we have created a new way for young people to share their story ideas with us - BBC School Report “The Pitch”. The Pitch gives 11-16 year olds the chance to send content directly to the BBC, where it will be shared with and considered by a team of editors from across BBC programmes. Any stories which are commissioned will then be created by BBC Staff working alongside the young person who submitted it – to tell their story in their voice.

We’ve developed the “BBC School Report Uploader” which mirrors the way young people share and upload content on social networks and online and makes it easy to pitch stories. Ideas can simply be sent in the form of videos, vlogs, pictures or text from a computer or a mobile phone.

BBC School Report gives 60,000 young people each year the opportunity to research and produce their own reports with the help of BBC staff mentors. The project works in partnership with all types of secondary education schools and establishments, including Hospital Schools and Pupil Referral Units and involves young people of all social backgrounds and a range of special educational needs. The project culminates in an annual News Day (this year on March 16th).

We’ve also made the project year round – so we can reflect the stories and views of young people on stories throughout the year – not just on one day.

The BBC is in a unique position to give young people an opportunity to learn about journalism and since its launch BBC School Report has enjoyed many highlights. As well as reporting on stories that matter to them School Reporters have interviewed high-profile personalities and notables over the years including four serving Prime Ministers, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Malala Yousafzai, Children’s Commissioners, the UN Special Envoy for Education, Director General of UNESCO, David Beckham, Angelina Jolie and Olympic and Paralympic athletes, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Richard Branson and the Earl of Wessex.

The project has won national and international awards including RTS Innovation in Education and the European Diversity award for Diversity in the Journalism category. But we want it to become an even better project which finds new ways of carrying on the good work. It is now a partnership made up of BBC News, BBC Sport, BBC Childrens’ and the BBC Academy. I hope these new partnerships will really help the project to play a greater role than ever before in educating young people about creating content which is interesting, accurate, and informative.

BBC School Report shows us that young people have passionate views on politics and the challenging social issues facing them, their friends and their families, and they are not afraid to speak out. We want to continue to find ways for them to express their opinions and share their experiences.

We hope that by making it easier for young people to engage with the BBC we can share even more of their stories and ideas and help them use their digital skills to create content. If you’re 11-16 – or know someone who is – and have an interest in telling stories submit your stories here. There will be more opportunities to have stories commissioned by news teams throughout the year.

As we enter a new charter finding new ways to understand, reach and reflect young audiences is a vital part of the BBC’s mission. We want to give them a voice – and we want to listen.

Sharon Stoke is Editor, BBC News School Report

Submit stories to The Pitch via the BBC News School Report website
BBC News School Report News Day is on 16th March 2016