Anna McNamee, an award-winning Canadian journalist and writer with a background in BBC radio, is the Executive Director of the Sandford St Martin Trust, dedicated to promoting excellence in religious broadcasting. We discuss the new Media Bill, the importance of religious literacy, the decline in programming on religion and ethics, commissioning practices, and the critical need to ensure public access to broadcasting. “This is legislation, which is made for commercial broadcasters, it has commer...
Feb 22, 2024•56 sec
Catherine Johnson, Professor of Media and Communications at the University of Leeds, author of the book ‘Online TV’, and a member of the Department of Culture, Media and Sports College of experts discusses the decline in PSB revenue, reliance on tech giants for distribution, the Media Bill, Ofcom and BBC funding. “I think part of the problem is that Ofcom was set up primarily as a competition regulator and has increasingly taken on the roles of a public service regulator. I sometimes don't feel ...
Feb 19, 2024•28 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Catherine Johnson, Professor of Media and Communications at the University of Leeds, author of the book ‘Online TV’, and a member of the Department of Culture, Media and Sports College of experts discusses the decline in PSB revenue, reliance on tech giants for distribution, the Media Bill, Ofcom and BBC funding. “I think part of the problem is that Ofcom was set up primarily as a competition regulator and has increasingly taken on the roles of a public service regulator. I sometimes don't feel ...
Feb 15, 2024•50 sec
In the week the BBC announced that it's preparing to launch new spin-off digital radio stations for Radios 1, 2, and 3 to provide more choice to audiences underserved by the BBC, we're talking to the co-founder of Boom Radio - a station that emerged to fill the gap left by Radio 2. David Lloyd, who has worked in radio for over 40 years, from LBC to Virgin to BBC local radio, and has regulatory experience from his years at the UK Radio Authority (now part of Ofcom), discusses changes in local rad...
Feb 12, 2024•26 min•Season 5Ep. 5
In the week the BBC has announced that it's preparing to launch new spin-off digital radio stations for Radios 1, 2, and 3 to provide more choice to audiences underserved by the BBC, we're talking to the co-founder of Boom Radio - a station that emerged to fill the gap left by Radio 2. David Lloyd, who has worked in radio for over 40 years, from LBC to Virgin to BBC Local Radio, and has regulatory experience from his years at the UK Radio Authority (now part of Ofcom), discusses changes in local...
Feb 08, 2024•1 min
Sir Craig Oliver is a former editor of BBC News at Six and Ten and was the Downing Street director of politics and communications under David Cameron. We discuss the release of the BBC Bashir emails, impartiality, Sir Robbie Gibb’s position on the BBC board, GB News and his career. “I don’t think we need GB News ….. what we're realising increasingly, is we need sources of news that are at least trying to be impartial.” To listen to the interview sign up to https://www.patreon.com/beebwatch/membe...
Feb 05, 2024•31 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Sir Craig Oliver is a former editor of BBC News at Six and Ten and was the Downing Street director of politics and communications under David Cameron. We discuss the release of the BBC Bashir emails, impartiality, Sir Robbie Gibb’s position on the BBC board, GB News and his career. “I don’t think we need GB News ….. what we're realising increasingly, is we need sources of news that are at least trying to be impartial.” To listen to the interview sign up to www.Patreon.com/Beebwatch @BeebRoger @ ...
Feb 01, 2024•57 sec
Alan Rusbridger, former Guardian editor and now editor at Prospect magazine has written an article with the headline ‘How the government captured the BBC'. Has it? We discuss the concept of impartiality, the government appointed board member Sir Robbie Gibb’s attempt to interfere in the appointment of the chair of Ofcom, his influence on the corporation, the make-up of the BBC board and criticism from the Jewish Chronicle. “Sir Robbie Gibb is the only person with editorial experience, who sits i...
Jan 29, 2024•27 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Alan Rusbridger, former Guardian editor and now editor at Prospect magazine has written an article with the headline ‘How the government captured the BBC'. Has it? We discuss the concept of impartiality, the government appointed board member Sir Robbie Gibb’s attempt to interfere in the appointment of the chair of Ofcom, his influence on the corporation, the make-up of the BBC board and criticism from the Jewish Chronicle. “Sir Robbie Gibb is the only person with editorial experience, who sits i...
Jan 25, 2024•38 sec
Jim Naughtie has covered each US presidential election over the past five decades. He was a political correspondent on The Scotsman and then The Guardian , before becoming a presenter of Radio 4’s The World at One and then of The Today Programme – which he stood down from in 2016. Currently, he is a Special Correspondent for BBC News and presents Radio 4’s Book Club. We discussed the implications of the Iowa caucus result, the challenges that public service broadcasters face covering an election...
Jan 22, 2024•31 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Jim Naughtie has covered each US presidential election over the past five decades. He was a political correspondent on The Scotsman and then The Guardian , before becoming a presenter of Radio 4’s The World at One and then of The Today Programme – which he stood down from in 2016. Currently, he is a Special Correspondent for BBC News and presents Radio 4’s Book Club. We discussed the implications of the Iowa caucus result, the challenges that public service broadcasters face covering an election...
Jan 18, 2024•53 sec
The circumstances surrounding the securing of the Panorama interview with the late Princess of Wales have been one of the biggest controversies to beset the BBC. On this week’s programme we’re taking stock on the imminent release of emails by the BBC which concerns its handling of the Martin Bashir scandal. There has been quite a battle in the courts as the Corporation attempts to withhold and redact some of the emails requested under the Freedom of Information act by that very determined journa...
Jan 16, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 1
The circumstances surrounding the securing of the Panorama interview with the late Princess of Wales have been one of the biggest controversies to beset the BBC. On this week’s programme we’re taking stock on the imminent release of emails by the BBC which concern its handling of the Martin Bashir scandal. There has been quite a battle in the courts as the Corporation attempts to withhold and redact some of the emails requested under the Freedom of Information act by that very determined journal...
Jan 12, 2024•2 min
Stewart Purvis, a former Editor of Channel 4 news and ITN Chief Executive was also one of the content regulators at Ofcom and oversaw standards cases involving the BBC between 2007 and 2010. In 2005 he was a member of a BBC commissioned independent panel assessing the impartiality of BBC news and current affairs coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2015 he was a member of the BBC Charter Review Advisory Group as well as many other roles including a non executive director of Channel 4...
Jan 09, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 16
Stewart Purvis, a former Editor of Channel 4 news and ITN Chief Executive was also one of the content regulators at Ofcom and oversaw standards cases involving the BBC between 2007 and 2010. In 2005 he was a member of a BBC commissioned independent panel assessing the impartiality of BBC news and current affairs coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2015 he was a member of the BBC Charter Review Advisory Group as well as many other roles including a non executive director of Channel 4...
Dec 22, 2023•4 min•Season 4Ep. 15
Mark Damazer is a former BBC Trustee, deputy head of BBC News and controller of Radio 4, now chairs the Booker prizes. In the week that the Government's nomination for BBC chair, Dr Samir Shah, is scrutinised by the DCMS select committee we discuss his appointment, what will be in his in-tray, the Lineker tweets, the Government's decision to renege on their funding commitment to the BBC, charter renewal, consultation, transparency and the licence fee as a funding mechanism. “It’s less than four ...
Dec 14, 2023•41 min•Season 4Ep. 14
David Aaronovitch, worked for the BBC in a senior capacity before becoming a writer for the Independent and later a columnist on the Times. He's made numerous documentaries and currently presents BBC Radio 4’s The Briefing Room. He publishes longer articles on his substack 'Notes from the Underground' and contributes to Tortoise Media. We discussed the complexities and roots of the current conflict in Israel and Gaza, BBC coverage of the war, the BBC's role in public service media, potential cut...
Dec 07, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Pat Younge is a former chief creative officer of BBC Television and a Non Executive Director at ITV Studios Ltd. Amongst his many roles he’s also currently Chair of the Cardiff University governing body and runs his own production company. In our interview we discussed why he is also chair of the British Broadcasting Challenge - why it was set up, the future of public service broadcasting, funding and local journalism. We reflect on his career, why he received elocution lessons and how diversity...
Nov 30, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Greg Childs worked for over 25 years at the BBC, mainly as a director, producer and executive producer of children’s programmes. He created the first Children’s BBC websites and, as Head of Children’s Digital, developed and launched the children’s channels, CBBC and CBeebies. Greg left the BBC in 2004 and worked across other broadcasters. He's now Director of The Children’s Media Foundation and Editorial Director of the Children’s Media Conference. We discuss the crisis in children’s TV programm...
Nov 23, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 11
It was once aid that the five most terrifying words in the political lexicon were “Michael Crick is in reception”. Michael has worked extensively across the main public service broadcasters – starting at ITV. He then moved to Channel 4 becoming political correspondent and Washington Correspondent. He joined the BBC as a reporter at Panorama and eventually became political editor of Newsnight before returning to Channel 4 News as political correspondent. He has now stood back from daily journalis...
Nov 16, 2023•32 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Sophie Chalk is the policy adviser for VLV (Voice of the Listener and Viewer), an independent charity representing the interests of the audience in supporting high-quality broadcasting in the UK. Earlier this year, they appeared before the DCMS select committee’s inquiry into the future of Public Service Broadcasting. Have their concerns been taken on board and reflected in the Media Bill, which was announced in the King's Speech on Tuesday? We discuss the implications of the bill on public serv...
Nov 09, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Ritula Shah spent 35 years at the BBC as a producer on 'Today,' presenting 'The World Today,' 'Woman’s Hour,' 'PM,' and chairing 'Any Questions.' However, Ritula is best known for her decade-long tenure as the presenter of the ‘World Tonight' on Radio 4 until earlier this year. We discuss why she left, covering the Israel/Hamas conflict, impartiality, preserving 'Newsnight' at the expense of successful Radio 4 strand programmes, and presenter pay. “I think that many of my colleagues are rather o...
Nov 02, 2023•32 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Richard Sambrook, the former BBC Director of News, the World Service and Global News is now emeritus Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University. We discuss Tim Davie, the BBC director general's appearance before the 1922 parliamentary committee, the BBC's coverage of the Israel/Gaza conflict, their news gathering process and transparency, BBC cuts and their impact on services and journalism training. “The BBC tends to be overly defensive. That's it’s kind of default position. But I think it's...
Oct 26, 2023•29 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Edward Stourton has worked in broadcasting for more than forty years, and has been a foreign correspondent for the BBC, ITN and Channel Four. He was a one of the main presenters of Radio 4’s Today programme for ten years and still regularly presents The World at One, The World this Weekend and Analysis. He’s also been the main presenter of Sunday – the radio 4 programme which looks at the religious and ethical issues of the week. He's recently written a book about it with his producer Amanda Han...
Oct 19, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Roger Mosey was head of BBC TV News and is a former editor of the Today programme. We discuss the BBC's reluctance to use the term "terrorist" and the BBC's coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. “You have to recognise that you can't be morally neutral, you can't think that everything is a 50 50 call. So it's tough doing it. I think this is about the most difficult thing the BBC has to cover, after many years, decades of difficulty in covering Ireland.” Support the podcast by signing up to Patreon her...
Oct 11, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 5
By the time he was 40, Sir Mark Thompson had held some of the top jobs at the BBC. He went on to become Chief Executive of Channel 4 before returning to the corporation as Director General in 2004. In 2012 he went on to The New York Times where he turned around its fortunes. Another challenge now beckons - CEO and chair of CNN, the US news channel where he starts shortly. Roger Bolton talks to his former colleague about impartiality, free speech, BBC bias, democracy, public service broadcasting,...
Oct 04, 2023•46 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Richard Ayre, former controller of BBC editorial policy and a former member of the OFCOM content board is now the chair of the independent press regulator Impress. On this week's programme we discuss the newly published BBC social media guidelines in response to the Gary Lineker controversy last March. We also look at Ofcom's regulation of GB News and the Russell Brand affair. “Gary is a highly intelligent guy, the fact that he's welcomed these guidelines today, the fact that he never apologised...
Sep 28, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Katy Searle has recently left the BBC after a long career in news – over three decades. She was in charge of all of the BBC’s political output for 8 years up until last year, during which time huge savings had to be made. More recently Katy was director of news programmes and current affairs. We discuss the Russell Brand scandal, Ofcom's decision on GB News, impartiality and the impact of cuts on the organisation. "If you look at how long the Brand's investigation took, they spent two years doin...
Sep 20, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Nick Ferrari, LBC breakfast presenter and one of the UK's longest serving commercial radio presenters discusses impartiality, local radio, journalistic license and competition with the 'Today' programme. “Within the M25 we put up a fight against ‘Today’, we're not bad, but they are an absolute giant. Once you start getting out of the M25, I more than keep my own against ‘Today’. And you go to some cities, and actually, I will outperform the show in some cities.” He also looks back on a remarkabl...
Sep 14, 2023•33 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Samira Ahmed is the presenter of Radio 4’s arts programme ‘Front Row’ and for eleven years has presented 'Newswatch' – the sister programme and television news equivalent to 'Feedback' - which also aims to hold the BBC to account on behalf the licence fee payer. We discuss BBC coverage of the Huw Edwards story, the ability of 'Newswatch' and 'Feedback' programmes to hold the BBC to account and pay inequality. "Let's face it, it's mostly older white men coming out to speak on this and a lot of it...
Jul 20, 2023•36 min•Season 3Ep. 14
