ITV

Tag: BBC World Service

  • BBC Bangla to celebrate anniversary through Facebook Live, radio

    BBC Bangla to celebrate anniversary through Facebook Live, radio

    MUMBAI: BBC Bangla will present a series of programmes and events with audiences in Bangladesh and India to mark 75 years of broadcasting. A part of BBC World Service, BBC Bangla will engage with audiences via Facebook Lives and radio to discuss the global and national issues that are of special relevance to them. The theme of The BBC and Bangladesh will be discussed at a seminar at Dhaka University, with a panel and students, and will also be the focus of new programmes commissioned to mark the anniversary.

    BBC Bangla editor Sabir Mustafa, said: “Since the very first transmission on 11 October 1941, the BBC’s broadcasts in Bangla have delivered to its audiences much-needed accurate and impartial news and information. It has earned the trust of Bangla-speakers, wherever they were over the tempestuous decades – and wherever they are today. This anniversary is a great opportunity for us to check how in tune we are with what they expect and need from us.”

    Between 7 and 14 October, BBC Bangla will hold broadcast events in Bangladesh – in Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna – and in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal from where a significant proportion of the BBC Bangla digital audiences come. Starting as informal discussions with the BBC Bangla audiences, these events will transform into Facebook Lives on the BBC Bangla Facebook page. The focus of the conversations will be how the BBC can engage with younger audiences and meet their news and information needs.

    Throughout October, BBC Bangla journalists will travel to various parts of Bangladesh to debate critical issues with local residents. The following topics will be debated in these locations:

    • Khulna – the survival of mangrove forests
    • Sirajganj – the safety of migrants
    • Rangpur – revival of the rural economy
    • Sylhet – the role of expatriates in the country’s development
    • Rajshahi – the plight of rivers
    • Barisal – the threat of river erosion
    • Chittagong – how to preserve the country’s ethnic diversity.

    The conversations will be broadcast live on radio with simultaneous discussion for those who connect with BBC Bangla on social media.

    On 19 October, the conference, The BBC and Bangladesh, co-hosted by BBC Bangla and Dhaka University’s Department for Journalism and Mass Communications, will look at the role of the BBC in covering Bangladesh and the region, asking the panel and the audience of over 100 students how they want to engage with the BBC in the digital age.

    To celebrate the anniversary in October, the weekly TV programme, BBC Probaho, will feature audience members looking back at their own special BBC Bangla moments. An event page on Facebook, Hirok Joyonti (Diamond Jubilee), will display archive photos and comments from fans. BBC Live! will showcase contributions from the BBC Bangla teams – past and present – looking back at key moments during their time at the BBC, and will be available for download at bbcbangla.com. BBC Bangla radio will also broadcast selected extracts from some of the key programmes from its archives.

  • BBC Bangla to celebrate anniversary through Facebook Live, radio

    BBC Bangla to celebrate anniversary through Facebook Live, radio

    MUMBAI: BBC Bangla will present a series of programmes and events with audiences in Bangladesh and India to mark 75 years of broadcasting. A part of BBC World Service, BBC Bangla will engage with audiences via Facebook Lives and radio to discuss the global and national issues that are of special relevance to them. The theme of The BBC and Bangladesh will be discussed at a seminar at Dhaka University, with a panel and students, and will also be the focus of new programmes commissioned to mark the anniversary.

    BBC Bangla editor Sabir Mustafa, said: “Since the very first transmission on 11 October 1941, the BBC’s broadcasts in Bangla have delivered to its audiences much-needed accurate and impartial news and information. It has earned the trust of Bangla-speakers, wherever they were over the tempestuous decades – and wherever they are today. This anniversary is a great opportunity for us to check how in tune we are with what they expect and need from us.”

    Between 7 and 14 October, BBC Bangla will hold broadcast events in Bangladesh – in Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna – and in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal from where a significant proportion of the BBC Bangla digital audiences come. Starting as informal discussions with the BBC Bangla audiences, these events will transform into Facebook Lives on the BBC Bangla Facebook page. The focus of the conversations will be how the BBC can engage with younger audiences and meet their news and information needs.

    Throughout October, BBC Bangla journalists will travel to various parts of Bangladesh to debate critical issues with local residents. The following topics will be debated in these locations:

    • Khulna – the survival of mangrove forests
    • Sirajganj – the safety of migrants
    • Rangpur – revival of the rural economy
    • Sylhet – the role of expatriates in the country’s development
    • Rajshahi – the plight of rivers
    • Barisal – the threat of river erosion
    • Chittagong – how to preserve the country’s ethnic diversity.

    The conversations will be broadcast live on radio with simultaneous discussion for those who connect with BBC Bangla on social media.

    On 19 October, the conference, The BBC and Bangladesh, co-hosted by BBC Bangla and Dhaka University’s Department for Journalism and Mass Communications, will look at the role of the BBC in covering Bangladesh and the region, asking the panel and the audience of over 100 students how they want to engage with the BBC in the digital age.

    To celebrate the anniversary in October, the weekly TV programme, BBC Probaho, will feature audience members looking back at their own special BBC Bangla moments. An event page on Facebook, Hirok Joyonti (Diamond Jubilee), will display archive photos and comments from fans. BBC Live! will showcase contributions from the BBC Bangla teams – past and present – looking back at key moments during their time at the BBC, and will be available for download at bbcbangla.com. BBC Bangla radio will also broadcast selected extracts from some of the key programmes from its archives.

  • BBC appoints Simon Jack as business editor

    BBC appoints Simon Jack as business editor

    MUMBAI: The BBC has appointed Simon Jack as the new business editor.

    Jack joined the BBC’s Business and Economic team in 2003 and, as BBC Economics Correspondent, he worked across BBC News programmes including Newsnight, News at Ten and the other bulletins as well as BBC Radio 4’s PM and Wake Up To Money. In 2008, he reported on the financial crisis, appearing regularly on our television and radio programmes, and in that year Simon joined BBC Breakfast as the business presenter.

    He is currently the business and economic correspondent on Radio 4’s Today programme.

    Jack has presented a number of programmes, including the Panorama A Suicide In The Family, BBC World Service’s The Food Chain, as well as Return To The Gold Standard? and 100 Years Of The Federal Reserve for BBC Radio 4’s Analysis.

    BBC News and Current Affairs director James Harding said, “I’m delighted to announce that Simon Jack is appointed the BBC’s business editor. As listeners to the Today programme know well, Simon is a forensic interrogator of business, and respected by business leaders for his command of the issues. A banking analyst-turned-broadcaster, Simon’s financial judgement and pithy turn of phrase will no doubt serve him well in telling, breaking and explaining the business stories that matter so much to us all.”

    Jack added, “I’m very excited about taking on this role and building on the great work done by Robert Peston and Kamal Ahmed before me in bringing the most important business stories to BBC audiences across all our TV, radio and digital platforms. Business organisations, institutions and individuals play a major part in all of our lives and that makes good business journalism extremely important. It’s a challenge I’m looking forward to enormously.”

  • BBC appoints Simon Jack as business editor

    BBC appoints Simon Jack as business editor

    MUMBAI: The BBC has appointed Simon Jack as the new business editor.

    Jack joined the BBC’s Business and Economic team in 2003 and, as BBC Economics Correspondent, he worked across BBC News programmes including Newsnight, News at Ten and the other bulletins as well as BBC Radio 4’s PM and Wake Up To Money. In 2008, he reported on the financial crisis, appearing regularly on our television and radio programmes, and in that year Simon joined BBC Breakfast as the business presenter.

    He is currently the business and economic correspondent on Radio 4’s Today programme.

    Jack has presented a number of programmes, including the Panorama A Suicide In The Family, BBC World Service’s The Food Chain, as well as Return To The Gold Standard? and 100 Years Of The Federal Reserve for BBC Radio 4’s Analysis.

    BBC News and Current Affairs director James Harding said, “I’m delighted to announce that Simon Jack is appointed the BBC’s business editor. As listeners to the Today programme know well, Simon is a forensic interrogator of business, and respected by business leaders for his command of the issues. A banking analyst-turned-broadcaster, Simon’s financial judgement and pithy turn of phrase will no doubt serve him well in telling, breaking and explaining the business stories that matter so much to us all.”

    Jack added, “I’m very excited about taking on this role and building on the great work done by Robert Peston and Kamal Ahmed before me in bringing the most important business stories to BBC audiences across all our TV, radio and digital platforms. Business organisations, institutions and individuals play a major part in all of our lives and that makes good business journalism extremely important. It’s a challenge I’m looking forward to enormously.”

  • BBC World Service teams up with IGP to build ‘My Perfect Country’

    BBC World Service teams up with IGP to build ‘My Perfect Country’

    MUMBAI:  BBC World Service will be launching a compelling new six-part series titled My Perfect Country teaming up with the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) to build the perfect country.

     

    The series is presented by the broadcaster and writer Fi Glover and will air from 4 February.

     

    My Perfect Country will track down ideas, which have helped solve common problems in countries around the world and look at whether they can be adopted elsewhere. As the series develops, it will build up a blueprint of what the perfect country might be.

     

    Digital evangelist and business leader Martha Lane Fox and UCL Institute for Global Prosperity director Professor Henrietta Moore will join Glover and use their expertise to bring the people and ideas behind successful policies to the BBC World Service audience.

     

    BBC World Service English controller Mary Hockaday said, “The news agenda is full of trials and tribulations but all over the world people are tackling challenges with energy and creativity and coming up with imaginative ideas to solve problems. My Perfect Country brings a fresh outlook focused on sharing solutions. This series will harness the global reach of BBC World Service journalism and engage our audiences in how to make the world a better place.”

     

    With the help of data analysis and research from the IGP, each week the series will focus on a political, economic or social problem and work through it by finding somewhere on the globe where it has been addressed successfully.

     

    In collaboration with reporters, academics and analysts, the trio will break policies apart and ask how and why they worked, and crucially whether they could be applied elsewhere.

     

    Featuring in this series are Estonia’s digital state, Costa Rica’s clean energy policy, a grassroots approach to law and order in Uganda, a ‘zero-suicide model’ in America, innovative sanitation solutions for women in India and Portugal’s radical drug reform.

     

    Glover said, “My Perfect Country is a bit of a journalist’s dream – the one that you are usually shaken awake from in order to report on the daily diet of things that have gone wrong in the world. In this series we get a chance to meet just some of the people who have made their bits of the world go right – I cannot wait to get started.”

     

    Lane Fox added, “Sometimes I lie awake wondering what it would be like to start a country from scratch, it’s a once in a lifetime chance to have a go!”

     

    Professor Moore asserted, “It is wonderful to be working with the World Service on this forward-thinking project that celebrates innovations from around the world. As we work to achieve sustainable and inclusive prosperity, this series gives us a chance to examine what works for prosperity, and why.”

     

    To run alongside the series, BBC World Service will also produce online resources, also informed by data provided by IGP, which will allow audiences to work out their own perfect country, based on their own needs and preferences.

  • BBC World Service to Launch The Conversation

    BBC World Service to Launch The Conversation

    MUMBAI: The BBC World Service is launching a new weekly programme with an all-female line up. The Conversation starts on Monday 27th October (2030 GMT). Each week the programme will explore the success stories of two women from around the world who work in similar fields, through a conversation hosted by the BBC’s Kim Chakanetsa.

     

    How does the experience of the Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria compare with that of Yemen’s first female Ambassador? What does it take to be a female space engineer on India’s Mars mission? Does she come up against the same obstacles as a British Particle Physicist working for CERN? And how do a stand-up comedian from Kenya and a Saudi Satirist navigate their way through the male-dominated comedy scene?  The Conversation brings you the answers.

     

    The Conversation will bring together two women – meeting for the first time, from very different parts of the world and with very different backgrounds. Kim will be finding out what it takes to forge a successful career as a woman in the world today.

     

    Munazza Khan, Producer, The Conversation says: “We aim for the programme to be about women and about the lives they lead, not just the issues around being a woman. It does that by bringing people together who share the same interest but could be half the world apart in terms of geography and worlds apart in respect to lifestyle and culture. The results of the encounter are for everyone to share.”

     

    Kim Chakanetsa, Presenter, The Conversation says: “I am really excited to be presenting The Conversation. As a producer and now a presenter for the BBC World Service, I am always covering stories about, and issues that affect women around the world. Often it’s the negative issues that make the headlines. So it’s refreshing and only right that we should also reflect the positive stories of women around the world who make up half our audience. By showcasing the paths to success of two inspiring women each week we hope to challenge some of the prejudices which women still face globally.”

     

    This autumn guests on The Conversation include:

     

    •         Judge Khalida R. Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan now presiding over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Judge Mandisa Maya of the South African Supreme Court of Appeal

    •         Saudi Satirist, Hatoon Kadi and Kenyan Stand-up Comedian, Njambi McGrath

    •         The Artistic Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Music Director of the Hamburg Philharmonic, Simone Young and Mexican Conductor, Alondra de la Parra

    •         Yemen’s first female Ambassador Amatalim Alsoswa and the Finnish Ambassador to West Africa, Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury

     

    •         Indian Space Scientist on India’s Mars Mission, Minal Sampath and British Particle Physicist at CERN, Dr Tara Shears

     

    The Conversation launches on Monday 27th October 2014 at 20:30 GMT on BBC World Service. Audiences can listen online at bbc.co.uk/worldservice.

     

    The changing role of women is one of the biggest transitions the world has experienced and the BBC World Service is aiming to capture this progression through The Conversation. Last year the BBC pledged to represent women better in its international news output, kick-starting that drive with the 100 Women Season. The Conversation launch coincides with the return of 100 Women for three days of special programming across the BBC’s international news services on TV, radio and online from Monday 27th October.

     

    The 2014 list of 100 Women will be revealed on Monday 27th October. On Tuesday 28th at a special event in the BBC’s Radio Theatre four of the women will deliver mini key note speeches – Joyce Banda on political representation and empowerment, Shappi Khorsandi on bringing up girls, Shazia Saleem on entrepreneurship and Professor Lesley Yellowlees on women in science. Other highlights from across the three days include:

    Laura Bates will join forces with the BBC’s language services to look at the ways women are combatting Everyday Sexism around the world.

     

    Conchita Wurst will be interviewed by Kate Smurthwaite about cross dressing, gender identity and pushing boundaries.

     

    Ghanaian Photographer and male feminist, Nana Kofi Acquah will be sharing his images and asking for audiences’ photos that bust gender stereotypes.

                                                                                                                                        
    On Wednesday 29th the teams will look in depth at the issues of domestic violence and honour killings. To link up the 100 Women virtually Newsday’s Nuala McGovern will be live in Abuja, Shaimaa Khalil in Islamabad, Rupa Jha in Delhi and Chloe Tilly will be in London.

     

  • BBC World Service to showcase series on World War I

    BBC World Service to showcase series on World War I

    MUMBAI: This autumn the BBC World Service will broadcast specially commissioned programmes exploring how the First World War changed the subcontinent. India made an unparalleled contribution to the British War effort. There will be two one-hour radio documentaries, and a debate open to the public focussed on India and Imperialism recorded in Delhi. The season will explore the experiences and stories of those involved in WW1, many of which have remained largely untold in India today.

     
    Steve Titherington, Senior Commissioning Editor, BBC World Service says: “The war that changed the world touched every country. Over a million men from the dub continent fought with the British and others. Hundreds of thousands were killed or wounded or captured. We will examine their stories, and just as importantly debate what the effect was on the struggle for independence and the life of the region still. We have debated the war in St Petersburg, Istanbul, Germany and London. Delhi is next and it’s vital to our understanding of the legacy of this global conflict.”

     

    In a special debate from Delhi, the BBC’s Razia Iqbal will be joined by historians Prof Mridula Muckherjee and Dr Srinath Raghavan and a public audience to explore the impact of the First World War on Imperialism. Shashi Tharoor will also discuss Imperialism and independence in a specially commissioned essay performed at the event at the India International Centre, in partnership with the British Council.

    The War That Changed The World: India and Imperialism

     

    Saturday 8th November 1900-2000 GMT

     

    To mark the centenary of World War One, the BBC World Service and the British Council are hosting a series of ten debates around the world to explore the war’s lasting global legacy. Having already visited Bosnia, Germany, UK, Turkey and Russia the sixth edition of The War That Changed The World comes from India.

     

    The Indian army was key to the British military effort in the First World War. More than one million men served, many departed from Bombay in October and arrived on the Western Front within weeks. There were far more Indian soldiers defending the Empire than there were British men in the field. Some were moved by a genuine desire to come the Britain’s aid at its time of need and many believed that by fighting they would help the cause of India’s Home Rule. Home Rule was not granted, discontent grew and the war and its aftermath had a huge effect on Indian nationalism and the fate of the Empire.

     

    In this special debate from Delhi, the BBC’s Razia Iqbal will be joined by historians Prof Mridula Muckherjee and Dr Srinath Raghavan and a public audience to explore the impact of the First World War on Imperialism.

     

    Shashi Tharoor will also discuss Imperialism and independence in a specially commissioned essay performed at the event at the India International Centre, in partnership with the British Council.
     
    The Documentary: India’s Forgotten War

     

    Wednesday 29th October, 2000-2100 GMT

     

    As part of the WW1 centenary programming on the BBC World Service Anita Rani travels to India to discover how the war affected the country and its people. In the capital Delhi stands India Gate, the largest memorial to the war for which 1.5 million Indian men were recruited, but Anita discovers that The First World War is something of a forgotten memory there today, mostly seen as part of its colonial history. In this programme she sets out to uncover some of the forgotten stories.
     
    The Documentary: Ghostly Voices of World War One

     

    Saturday 8th November 2000-2100 GMT

     

    Hidden away in the backrooms at Humbolt University and the Ethnological Museum in Germany are some of the most remarkable sound recordings ever made. They date back to the First World War, and provide a unique archive capturing the voices of some of the ordinary men who fought in what was known as ‘the war to end all wars’. They were recorded by German academics who realised they didn’t have to go abroad to research some of the world’s many different languages. Instead, they were able to focus on captured soldiers from the furthest reaches of the British Empire who were being held at prisoner of war camps all over Germany. Among them were a group of Hindus, Sikhs and Indian soldiers imprisoned at camps on the outskirts of Berlin.  They performed poems, songs and stories which were recorded using Thomas Eddison’s latest invention. How these men lived out the rest of their lives has, up until now, been cloaked in obscurity. On a quest to discover what happened to them and how they died, and armed with the recordings, Priyath Liyanage travels from Germany across the world to some of the villages in Northern India where these men lived.

     

  • BBC Reith Lectures with renowned surgeon and writer Atul Gawande

    BBC Reith Lectures with renowned surgeon and writer Atul Gawande

    MUMBAI: In his lecture series, ‘The Future of Medicine’, Atul Gawande will undertake a global examination of the nature of modern medicine: Both it’s progress and it’s failures. Medicine is defined he says by “the messy intersection of science and human fallibility.” The lectures will take place in India, the USA and UK.

     

    Known for both his clear analysis and vivid storytelling, he will explore the growing importance of systems in medicine and argue that the future role of the medical profession in our lives should be bigger than simply assuring health and survival.

     

    Atul Gawande, MD, MPH is a practicing surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Professor at both the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. He’s become best known for his writing on medicine, including three widely acclaimed books, and his research on medical error and performance. Amongst his other roles, he is Director of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and Chairman of Lifebox, a global charity reducing unsafe surgery.

     

    The first lecture, Why do Doctors Fail?, will explore the nature of imperfection in medicine. In particular, Gawande will examine how much of failure in medicine remains due to ignorance (lack of knowledge) and how much is due to ineptitude (failure to use existing knowledge) and what that means for where medical progress will come from in the future. 

     

    In the second lecture, The Century of the System, Gawande will focus on the impact that the development of systems has had – and should have in the future – on medicine and overcoming failures of ineptitude. He will dissect systems of all kinds, from simple checklists to complex mechanisms of many parts. And he will argue for how they can be better designed to transform care from the richest parts of the world to the poorest.

     

    The third lecture, The Problem of Hubris, will examine the great unfixable problems in life and healthcare – aging and death. Gawande will argue that the reluctance of society and medical institutions to recognise the limits of what professionals can do is producing widespread suffering. But research is revealing how this can change. 

     

    The fourth and final lecture, The Idea of Wellbeing, will argue that medicine must shift from a focus on health and survival to a focus on wellbeing – on protecting, insofar as possible, people’s abilities to pursue their highest priorities in life. And, as he will suggest from the story of his father’s life and death from cancer, those priorities are nearly always more complex than simply to live longer.

     

    Atul Gawande said:  “I am flattered and grateful to have the chance to give this year’s Reith Lectures. After almost two decades of writing and research on medicine, I hope to use to the Lectures to bring together my thinking on how medicine is changing and must change globally.”

     

    Atul Gawande will deliver his Reith Lectures in front of live audiences this autumn. The first lecture will be recorded in Boston, followed by lectures at the Wellcome Collection in London, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in Delhi.

     

    The lectures will be broadcast on both BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service from November.

  • BBC World Service to celebrate 80th birthday

    BBC World Service to celebrate 80th birthday

    MUMBAI: BBC has announced that its global audience will get behind the scenes access as part of a special day of live programming on 29 February, to mark the BBC World Service’s 80th birthday.

    Highlights from the day will include a special global audience with Sir David Attenborough and The Strand – the WS global arts programme – will be edited by guest artist and music producer William Orbit.

    Audiences will be able to join a special debate about what they want from the World Service, both on air, online and across social media forums.

    The day will give audiences around the world a unique insight into production of their favourite programmes and multilingual videos will be produced of all the broadcasts throughout the day online at bbc.co.uk/worldservice.

    For the first time audiences will be invited to watch and participate in over 12 hours of programmes in English and across more than 12 different languages. The day will be hosted by BBC Persian’s Pooneh Ghoddoosi and BBC World Service presenter Ros Atkins.

    BBC World Service’s daily morning editorial meeting, which normally takes place behind the doors of Bush House, will be opened up and broadcast live for the first time. In this meeting – a daily part of life in the building – the newsroom’s editors discuss and agree the big stories and developments and decide on which stories will shape the day’s news agenda.

    The open courtyard of Bush House will host many of the programmes that day. Flagship programmes such as Newshour and World Have Your Say will invite audiences to join a conversation about international broadcasting and the future priorities of the BBC World Service.

    Listeners around the world – and the audience at Bush House – will have the chance to shape the news agenda and debate by making suggestions from the floor, or through Twitter, Facebook and Skype.

    BBC Global News director Peter Horrocks said, “The 80th birthday and departure from Bush House means these are historic and changing times for the BBC World Service. We want our audiences to be at the heart of both the commemoration of the past and conversation about the future.”

    BBC World Service commissioning editor Steve Titherington said, “We are turning Bush House inside out showing who we are and what we do to our audiences and asking what the world wants next from the BBC World Service.”

    On 29 February, BBC World Service is also launching a new series of programmes on the human body. Linked to the Olympics, The Human Race will invite the public to take part in a ‘healthcheck special’ featuring leading international scientists and sportspeople.

    Not only celebrating 80 years of broadcasting, this special day of programming marks the start of the BBC World Service’s move from Bush House, its iconic London home for over 70 years, to a new state of the
    art broadcasting centre in Oxford Circus.

    The move will see all of the BBC’s news services – UK and international – based together for the first time. The aim is to create ‘the world’s newsroom’ – enhancing the BBC’s global newsgathering and creating a forum for the best journalism in the world.

  • BBC to shut Hindi radio service from 31 March

    BBC to shut Hindi radio service from 31 March

    MUMBAI: BBC will end its Hindi radio service in India after captivating listeners for 70 long years.

    The transmission, which began in 1940 even before India won Independence, would no longer be available in the sub-continent from 31 March 2011.   
         
      Some 30 employees working for one of the oldest radio services in India have been given their pink slips. Now BBC‘s Hindi presence in India is nothing beyond its tweeter site, which has only 735 followers.

    The BBC World Service officially said on Wednesday that it would close five of its language services, shut down radio services for another seven languages and cut 650 jobs as it seeks to make drastic savings.

    The Albanian, Macedonian, Portuguese for Africa and Serbian language services as well as the English for the Caribbean regional service will all be shut down over the next three years.