大象传媒

There's been a steady drip of information about the massacre at Haditha - 24 Iraqis, including a two-year-old girl, allegedly murdered by US Marines.

It was clear someone needed to bring together the information. John Simpson and I spent the Bank Holiday sifting the eyewitness evidence. We needed a major centrepiece graphic to explain what happened - and it needed to be definitive.

To make it happen I wrote a properly sourced script - it came out at over a minute long. John laid down an audio guide track because it is incredibly difficult to make a long graphic fit a piece that is fed from the field. The graphics department started by creating 3D models of the American military vehicles, a taxi, a checkpoint and the three houses where the massacre happened. This took most of the day.

The 3D models were then handed over to another designer whose job it was to put them in context and add graphic text. The process of building the graphic took eleven hours.

I hope it helped the audience visualise and understand the horror of what allegedly happened - you can watch the piece in full by clicking here.

It seems eyebrows were raised about 大象传媒 world affairs editor John Simpson鈥檚 appearance on rival broadcaster, Sky News, from Baghdad yesterday. In the wake of the tragic deaths of the CBS news team, he was asked to take part in a discussion of the safety issues for journalists covering Iraq.

Sky asked us if they could interview him in the morning and we agreed. (There was a bit of a communication breakdown in that those of us involved in the decision failed to tell others, so it came as more of a surprise to some in the 大象传媒 than it should have.)

But more interesting is the question of whether or not John should have appeared on a rival broadcaster. And I am intrigued over how this was reported on the :

鈥淥ne in the eye for Sky," it reported. "In a curious move, Simpson appeared on the roof of a Baghdad building to talk about the dangers of working in Iraq while his opposite number, Sky's foreign editor Tim Marshall was sat cosily in the studio. ...maybe the 大象传媒 was trying to get one over its news rivals.鈥�

I can assure the diarist that the 大象传媒 was not trying to put 鈥渙ne over" a news rival. He or she seems unaware that safety is a strictly non-competitive issue between media organisations. The London-based broadcast media - the 大象传媒, Sky News, ITN and CNN - all meet up regularly to share information and advice about reporting from dangerous places.

Yesterday Sky News illuminated for its audience how news organisations go about operating under such dangerous security conditions. All credit to them for interviewing someone with huge credibility and first hand experience - even if he does work for the opposition.

"A nation of knives" scream some tabloid newspapers this morning. So we talked a lot at our editorial meetings today about what we should do, and how to approach the spate of stabbings that have become so prominent recently.

To some extent it's true these things go in cycles. I remember the last time knife crime really ran as a story over a number of weeks was when was killed, and then inevitably other stories and events moved the issue out of the headlines.

But how do we report without just adding to the hysteria? I think the key here is context. It is a fact knife crime is on the increase - that's why the government is bringing in new laws to tackle it. But who exactly is carrying a knife? Why do they do it? And what can we do apart from bringing in new laws to combat it? It's these questions we need to answer in our coverage and not simply give a list of incidents of knife crime and essentially tell the viewers to be afraid.

Financial Times: "大象传媒 director-general Mark Thompson has claimed that the corporation is the only European media group capable of taking on internet and media giants" (, and )

Daily Mail: "Tessa Jowell is to hand the 大象传媒 chairman Michael Grade a massive 拢60,000 pay rise for working a four-day week" ()

Daily Mail: "Bruce Forsyth caused some students to walk out of an Oxford Union debate when he told an ill-received joke about Indian take-aways" ()

Tonight - after a gap of 15 years - the 大象传媒 is reopening its bureau in Beirut. Two decades ago, the Lebanese capital was the scene of car bombs and kidnappings - all too frequently, journalists were seen as targets. Throughout the civil war, the 大象传媒 maintained its presence in Beirut, to bring the story to audiences in the UK and around the world.

Twenty years on, the 大象传媒 is now alone among British broadcasters in staying on in Baghdad - despite the kidnappings and car bombs in the Iraqi capital.

Once again, journalists are targets. brings to 20 the number of journalists killed in Iraq in the first five months of 2006.

Thirty years ago, Jim Muir was one of those brave hacks venturing into Beirut. Today he's one of our regulars in Baghdad. The reason is the same; a belief that the story is too important for us to turn our back on, and that we have a responsibility to our audiences to explain the context - a context we can only reflect by being there.

I'll admit to a sense of frustation sometimes, that people like Andrew North and the other colleagues who work in Baghdad, don't always get the credit they deserve for working in the most difficult conditions imaginable.

Contrary to what some in the TV industry might have you believe, they don't "cower" inside the , chained to the roof of the bureau merely repeating copy churned out by news agencies. Every day our team in Baghdad ventures out of our fortified street on the opposite side of the river from the Green Zone - and we spend as much time talking through the logistics of doing so, as we do the editorial focus of the story.

For someone like me, the safety of our team in Baghdad (and the world's other troublespots) is the biggest single responsbility of the job. At any one time, the 大象传媒 has three security staff based in Baghdad. Their job is to enable us to get out and get the story. They do it remarkably successfully - whether it's reporting the daily toll of casualties, or the polticians' attempts to restore order in Baghdad and beyond. We keep the situation under constant review - balancing the risk of the security situation, with our ability to tell the story.

The deaths of the CBS crew, Paul Douglas and James Brolan, are a reminder of the dangers our colleagues face every day. The injury to correspondent Kimberley Dozier comes just a few months after our friend Bob Woodruff from ABC News was also badly wounded alongside his camerman, Doug Vog, both of whom are now recovering. Everyone from the 大象传媒 who goes to Baghdad is a volunteer - no-one is forced to work in Iraq. They go because they believe the story is important and needs telling to our audiences in Britain and beyond. And I'm enormously proud of them.

It was fun - if daunting - to be involved in starting something new on a network whose audience is so passionate about even the smallest change in the schedule. And it was fun to do it with a team which relished the chance of thinking about news in a different way.

John Simpson, the 大象传媒's world affairs editor, looked into the state of journalism in Iraq on Tuesday's Today programme.

"The deaths of a CBS camera crew in Baghdad were a terrible reminder of how dangerous reporting here can be... but it still isn't too dangerous to operate here, if you're sensible, careful and lucky... It's still perfectly possible to get out into the streets and film most days. And please don't take any notice of that ignorant stuff about western journalists huddling in the safety of the Green Zone"

Listen to the piece in full here.

It鈥檚 been a busy weekend for the online news desk as they responded to the news early on Saturday of a major earthquake striking Java in Indonesia.

In the first stages of a story like this there鈥檚 a tried and tested list of things to do: send out a breaking news alert and publish a few paragraphs which can be built up as more quotes and details come in from the 大象传媒鈥檚 correspondents. We鈥檒l look for the best pictures, commission maps from our graphics team and stream the 大象传媒鈥檚 rolling TV news coverage on the website.

But there鈥檚 another staple element in covering any breaking story on the site, which is to ask our readers for their eyewitness accounts. On Saturday we put an email feedback form on the main story straight away and within an hour or so of checking responses, ringing them back and interviewing people, we had a series of first-hand accounts on the site from readers in the area. The contacts we make via these emails are shared with radio and TV news who follow up with their own interviews.

It鈥檚 become almost routine for us to expect such reports but sometimes it鈥檚 these accounts, above all, which bring home the reality of the situation for those caught up in it.

鈥淲e'll be too afraid to sleep tonight,鈥� who contacted us from Yogyakarta, 鈥淚t's going to be a real mess. We're just happy to be alive.鈥�

Users sent in their pictures of the Airbus A380 when it made its first flight to the UK, and many of those pictures were featured on the 大象传媒 News website and on 大象传媒 News 24. One of them recorded the appearance of the photo on the TV, and has now posted that recording to YouTube. So to complete the circle, it's only proper that we should in turn link to that posting.

The Guardian: John Simpson defends the reporting in Iraq: "We do not cower in the Green Zone" ()

The Independent: "I wonder how worthwhile Newsnight's '' competition was" ()

The Observer: "The 大象传媒's chairman has put the brakes on a plan to move flagship divisions of the corporation to Manchester" ()

Manchester Evening News: "A 大象传媒 spokesman denied there was any truth in a report that the chairman of the 大象传媒 has put the brakes on the move" ()

The Scotsman: "The 大象传媒 director-general has definitively ruled out any prospect of a "Scottish Six" news bulletin" ()

There's plenty of debate these days about the value of blogs. The 大象传媒's head of interactive cheerfully accepts that 99% of all blogs, including some of the corporation's, are "complete crap".

Newsnight's own blogger, Paul Mason (Idle Scrawl), thinks that any TV or radio journalist who doesn't want some form of blog or web presence is mad.

Our own presenter Jeremy Paxman is at the sceptical end of the spectrum. Show me the evidence that numbers comparable to those who watch TV are reading blogs, runs his argument, and I'll start blogging. (Though it's not the case, as reported somewhere this week, that Jeremy refuses to podcast.)

Of course the numbers reading individual blogs will not reach the million or so who watch Newsnight every night any time soon, but it's the two-way nature of them that makes them compulsive and addictive. I don't know any of my contemporaries who would describe themselves as problem TV viewers, but I know plenty who can't leave Technorati alone.

A few weeks ago, News 24 decided to refresh/modernise the countdown music at the top of the hour to give it a bit more zip.

This was done by Dave Lowe (the original composer) and we asked online for viewers' responses. There has been quite a big and very positive mailbag - and several viewers have even taken up our challenge to remix the music themselves.

In the last couple of days the unrest in the world's youngest country, East Timor, has forced its way up the news agenda with the government there calling for international military intervention from Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and Malaysia to help put down a rebellion by discharged soldiers.
Six years ago, East Timor was in the headlines for weeks when the Indonesians and their local allies went on the rampage as the country voted for independence from Indonesia in a UN run poll. The UN ran the country for a few years then helped the Timorese set up their own insitutions - the idea was to help them stand on their own feet. This now seems to be unravelling.

We decided we should do this story on The World Tonight for a couple of reasons:

a) the country is descending into chaos and there is the human drama of some of the poorest people in the world having to flee their capital city to avoid getting caught in the crossfire

b) with difficulties of large scale nation-building in places like Iraq and Afghanistan in the news, the apparent failure of nation building efforts in tiny East Timor (pop.n 700,000) despite a large effort from the international community, highlights the difficulties of imposing western standards of governence in places torn apart by conflict.

As a news programme, we usually want to get interviews with decision makers (or what we broadcast journos like to call 'real people') in order to try to get a news line out of them. Given the time difference to Timor and Australia from London we couldn't get an interview with either government there so we arranged to do an interview with the Portuguese Foreign Minister (Lisbon is on the same time as us) and arranged for John Taylor, a former UN adviser from South Bank Universtity to come in and explain what's going on there.

That's all fine and dandy but as this is live radio it's never that simple. In the run up to going on air, Robin Lustig was composing his introduction - what we call the cue - he was trying to bring listeners up to date with the background to East Timor since it disappeared from the headlines a few years ago while telling listeners why we were doing the story - ie the appeal for troops from abroad.

Robin and I discussed and revised the cue a couple of times. After I had said we couldn't say Timor became independent from Indonesia (because it was never legally part of the country) but we needed to say the Indonesians had occupied it for 25 years, Robin said he couldn't give a two miunte history lesson. After two attempts we think we got there and we had a 45 second intro that established the background and told us why the story was important on this day ... the art is to make it sound effortless, give the essential context for people to understand the story and do it in less than a minute.

And then the Portuguese FM stood us up - when we called him during the programme, his daughter answered the phone and told us he hadn't got home from the restaurant. It happens more than you think, which is why we have a stand-by item for each programme, and why our listeners heard from the Enron whistleblower after all.

Brave - yes, that's one word for it. Foolhardy, that's another. There's probably a really good reason why Question Time has consistently been the most popular political programme on TV for nearly 27 years - without yet having a member of the public on the panel.

Anyway, it looks like that's about to change, thanks to the teenagers who are helping to produce this year's special Schools Question Time edition in July. The search is on for a young panellist up to the challenge of debating hot political topics with top politicians, maybe the odd celebrity and, of course, fending off a probing Dimbleby.

The would-be panellists will have to use their mobile phones to send a one minute video clip of themselves explaining why they should be the new star of QT. As they have to be aged between 18 and 25, hopefully they won't be as technically challenged as I would be attempting that. The final few shortlisted will then go through a mini "pop-idol" audition to decide who sits in the vacant chair.

We're genuinely a bit apprehensive! Nothing quite like this has been done before - will there be 20 entrants or 20,000? What if there isn't a single one who's up to it? Question Time really is probably the most intimidating of programmes for panellists, as plenty of Cabinet Ministers will tell you.

It is actually invigorating to bring a new generation to such an iconic programme and give them the chance to use its format to engage in impassioned political debate. The students from the four winning schools in this year's challenge are busy planning all aspects of their programme. Our experience of the first couple of years of the competition has been that it produces a real buzz and a freshness which makes for a terrific debate. And maybe this year, it'll launch a bright new political career as well.

Our new - well relatively new - interactive programme World Have Your Say (WHYS)has sent a team to Soweto. Presenter Roz Atkins (Cornish, surfer and part time DJ) editor Mark Sandell (West Ham, ex 5 live but settling in very well thank you) and producer Fiona Crack (ex Online, great cook) decided to hold the global conversation in Nambitha - a restaurant in Orlando West in Soweto.

The programme was simulcast with . YFM is a youth station that plays mainly music, the South African equivalent of Radio 1 you might say. But they broadcast the programme in full and were extremely pleased with the results. So much so that the World Service marketing man in the region tells me YFM are seriously considering taking the programme. They'll stop playing music for an hour every day to play WHYS - here's hoping!

We asked the audience to set the agenda and the discussion revolved around crime rates, corruption, foreigners and xenophobia. It was a great - and revealing - listen. It got away from the usual black/white divide to focus on black South Africans vs other Africans. For the first time publicly, people were talking about ANC corruption and taking the local ANC minister to task.

The guests were certainly engaged and the tone passionate. People rang the programme from all over Africa, the US, GB and from as far as Bangladesh. Lots of texts too. But then some of the guests complained we were painting a negative picture of their country. Roz's line was: it may be uncomfortable but you're setting the agenda - these are the issues you the audience chose to talk about.

Anyway it ended on a high. The editor of the Sowetan newspaper (on first name terms with Mandela, I'm told) said to Mark this was the best conversation he'd heard coming out of Soweto with Sowetans talking to the world. The team is still buzzing.

You can hear the programme here.

Daily Mirror: Tony Blair, interviewed on Radio 1, refused to discuss whether he had ever had a one-night stand ()

Independent: The Bureau, France's answer to The Office, loses something in translation. ()

The Guardian: 大象传媒 reporter didn't know who Kevin Pietersen was ()

Daily Mail: Ephraim Hardcastle alleges News 24 said Hutton report signed by Cherie Blair was sold for charity (it was for Labour funds) (no link)

The film on Newsnight last night about Colombia featured some amazing scenes in which, variously, monkeys were breast-fed by a human, shot down from trees, and even cooked and eaten. The sort of thing, one might think, that viewers would be on the phones complaining about. The fact is that no-one called - though one person did ring to object to us featuring Freddie Starr.

Some blue globules, new music and a dusting of angst helped launch Newsround's new lava lamp look this week. I think it has refreshed the Newsround look, and made it feel more up to date and child friendly.

But how do you measure the success of a re-brand? Ultimately it is the audience who vote with their fingers on the remote or with the mouse.

Children are also straight talking when they give their opinions. So here is some thematically grouped user generated content, carefully balanced to meet Editorial Guidelines on vox pops!

Tom, 12, Trealaw
My fav bite is when the nr gets eaten by the yello blob.

Sam, London
The title sequence fits more with a cheap remake of Pacman!

Karen, Wokingham
i liked the new studio it is cool and elle's hair is nice too!

Katie, 13, London
i dont like the theme tune. i prefer the old one and i dont think Ellie's hair suites her.

Vikki, Carlisle
I love the screen at the back of the studio. that's well cool!

Abby, 12, Leicester
It's ok, but the animation makes me feel sick!

Lucy, 9, Isle of Man
it is ace

Sonia, 11, Bradford
IT'S XXXX [My edit - this is pre-watershed]

AND

Jay, 8, Shoebury
shut up!

OK then.

Users of the 大象传媒 News website might have noticed we have changed the way Search works. Now, whichever page you search from, the results page will be from across the entire 大象传媒 website - news, radio, TV, Where I Live etc etc. The top News results will still be clustered - Google-style - at the top of the list.

It's not been a popular move in some quarters (specifically with many journalists who work on the site), but of the hundreds of thousands who use our search every day, there have been barely two dozen complaints. So we think what we've done is probably right - it's based on research which indicated that most searches are not related to the page they are sent from, but could be about any subject. People reading a news story are more likely to search for something non-news related such as EastEnders or GCSE Bitesize than they are another news subject.

It is a work in progress, though - we are looking at restoring some of the "advanced options" we have lost, and will consider giving users an option to choose default results - hardened users of the news site could opt always to see results from news. If you approve or disapprove of the new search, do let me know though. Any feedback is useful.

The Independent: "Millions heard Robin Lane-Fox, a fellow of New College, label garden designers as 'fairies' during a debate about the Chelsea Flower Show on Radio 4, prompting a stifled snigger from others in the studio" (, and Today's response here)

The Times: "The 大象传媒 has persuaded the creator of the 1970s television series M*A*S*H to turn his fire on the Bush Administration" ()

The Australian: "If the 大象传媒 can run commercial and public streams without conflict, why not the ABC" ()

Following Tuesday's show, a number of viewers about our item about Mark Oaten (you can watch it here).

Their complaints split into two main areas - first that he was an unsuitable choice of guest and second that it was an inappropriate choice as lead item. Let me respond to each in turn.

When as a leading member of the Liberal Democrats' front bench team following a sex scandal, Newsnight - in common with most of the media - requested an interview. This would surely - by any yardstick - have constituted a newsworthy item. Until a few days previously he had been a contender to be the leader of the Liberal Democrats. At that point Mr Oaten refused all interviews. Eventually we persuaded him to talk for the first time on television about the circumstances of his resignation to Newsnight. He did not want to do a formal interview but instead suggested a film in which he would discuss these issues.

While the film was presented by Mr Oaten, most of its content was made up of interviews with Mr Oaten conducted by our producer. Mr Oaten was clearly trying to explain, although not excuse, his behaviour, but did so in response to our questioning and under our editorial control. The result was, I think, a rare and extraordinary insight into the pressures and temptations involved in political life at Westminster. I accept that many disagree, but I strongly believe it was a worthwhile and newsworthy item.

Should we have led with it? Newsnight, unlike more formal news bulletins, is a hybrid between news and current affairs. Our primary aim every day is not necessarily to reflect the biggest stories in the world that day, but to reflect, analyse and discuss a range of current issues. The function or dysfunction of the Westminster machine is clearly an issue of huge current concern.

We did not set out with a firm intention that this would be our lead item, but continued to weigh up our options in the course of the day. By late afternoon we faced the choice between the Oaten film and an analysis of the Government's latest asylum figures. In terms of exclusivity, novelty and interest we concluded that the Oaten film should go first.

I accept that the circumstances of Mr Oaten's resignation will be distasteful to many viewers, but Newsnight's aim was not to justify his actions or assist his rehabilitation - it was to try to explore what it is that has led many politicians down the years to take these kind of risks.

I was at a conference at the weekend where someone asked me to define 'News'. I hate it when people do that. It's just possible they may have detected through my coughing and spluttering that the definition can be a bit vague.

I'm currently looking at the output of 大象传媒 World and CNN and wondering to myself: Is this news? You see there's . The pictures are spectacular. We've been using them almost non-stop for about 90 minutes now. But the fire seems to have been caused by an electrical fault. And it's in the cargo terminal. And there are no reported casualties.

So is it news?

Well yes, it is. It's a particularly large fire, and it is at a well-known international airport. For quite a long time we didn't know whether the cause could have been more troubling. We're a visual medium, and the images are incredibly strong. Thanks to the user-generated hub in News Interactive, we're getting first-hand reports from passengers at the airport (the eye-witness we just spoke to sent an email to the 大象传媒 using his Blackberry).

But it's probably not news for much longer. It will make a strong package for the rest of the day, but I doubt the live coverage will sustain for very long. And CNN appear to think the same thing, since as I write we've both moved on to other stories. Not that we ever watch each other to see what's happening. Oh no.

The highlight of this morning's programme was getting our reporter, Jon Manel, to smuggle a garden gnome into the Chelsea Flower Show, where such ornaments are banned because they're naff.

Lots of people thought it was very amusing - but the subsequent, light-hearted, discussion between Robin Lane Fox, FT Gardening columnist and Tim Rumball, from Amateur Gardener Magazine on snobbery in gardening, led the former to say: "If you banned fairies you'd have to ban half the garden designers."

Some listeners were predictably offended by such a homophobic comment, and demanded instant on-air apologies. We settled with reading out one cross e-mail and three in praise of gnomes at the end of the programme.

(You can hear the whole episode here, and see the pictures of the gnome here.)

Some callers to the Audience Log asked why Tuesday's rise in profits at Marks and Spencer was reported so widely.

The answer is simple: M&S is an iconic High Street brand - famously Margaret Thatcher bought her underwear there and today we learn in the papers that Gordon Brown buys his there too! Broadcast or print we are all agreed that M&S is a story. It's a store that everybody knows, one of those British brands that everyone has heard of and has a view on - millions shop there.

On top of that, M&S is recovering from the most traumatic collapse of its long history and was at the heart of a tough-fought takeover battle two years ago. So yesterday's coverage was all about how is the turn-around going - is M&S back to what it was. Answer: not yet!

As every redtop reader now knows very well, a seventh group of tenants has settled into the Big Brother house and so the usual question is being asked - is it news or not?

Even internally on Five Live we don't have a settled view on this. My own opinion might be summed up as: It's worth doing BB if it raises an interesting issue, or if something actually happens. So yes, it is news... sort of.

We marked the beginning of BB7 last week; we've done a feature on tourette's syndrome; we're considering doing something on what it's like to come out when you're a Muslim (was it easier for Kamal than for Shabhaz?) And even though we like some of the issues raised, we know there's hype and manipulation.

But as Drive editor Jon Zilkha put it: "We cover things which are just plain interesting. Some of what we do is speculation, some is conversation, some is reflecting what people are talking about. BB fits in there somewhere as part of the cultural mix."

When television newsreaders were accused of "prancing" last week, the head of 大象传媒 TV news Peter Horrocks came on Five Live Breakfast to talk that over (listen to the interview here). Towards the end of the piece, Nicky Campbell asked Peter: "Is Big Brother a story?" Peter tactfully suggested that Five Live would be more likely to cover it than the Ten O'Clock News.

Peter is right. We've got a bit more space, in the Five Live schedule, than they have on the Ten. And if we can't find room occasionally for sharing a bit of gossip with the audience - an audience that understands fully that spurious celebrity is a curious part of the modern world - then we're probably being a bit too snobbish.

When BB7 started, the editor of Breakfast, Richard Jackson, had a thought. "Why don't we ask the audience if they want Big Brother coverage?" On reflection, we were pretty sure what the texting constituency, or a majority of them, would say: "No Big Brother, thank you."

One guy - a devoted Breakfast listener - had already emailed to say that as soon as we mentioned Big Brother he would switch over to the Today programme. And he would do that every morning if the words "Big Brother" so much as passed the lips of Nicky or Shelagh. Or even Helen Blaby.

So if we thought the audience (or at least the texting constituency) would vote against, why on earth would we cover it? Well... because it's news. Sort of.

The Telegraph: "The 大象传媒 has used "back-of-a-fag-packet figures" to overstate the need for a licence fee increase, ITV has said" ().

The Independent: David Attenborough says, "I'm no longer sceptical... I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world" ().

The Sun: "Blue Peter will change its name tonight for the first time in its 47-year history" ().

Here's a selection of viewer feedback on Newsnight's redesign which aired last night.

My personal favourite was the anonymous viewer recorded on the overnight duty log:

Felt that the new set was excellent. Totally excellent, 100% approval.

And there was a pretty lively session on the , that wonderful uber geek talking shop on TV presentation.

My favourite there was approving critique of our new Astons.

You can see more viewer comments below...

Read the rest of this entry

A selection of comments being made about the 大象传媒 on blogs around the world...

鈥� Adam Smith Institute: "Some 大象传媒 staff are reportedly annoyed that which would in the past have been fixed by a couple of workmen in a cradle has degenerated into an expensive and long-running farce" ().

鈥� Idents.tv :"I really like the 大象传媒 News sets" ().

鈥� Chris Doidge: "The 大象传媒 is supposed to be 'ours', yet at the moment is greatly detached from society in many respects" ().

鈥� Standing in other people鈥檚 shoes: "I love this audience analysis from Newsnight editor Peter Barron - I suspect I might actually be a dedicated loyalist" ().

When the Six O'Clock News commissioned a survey into the UK's attitude to the problem of drugs, the results were perhaps surprising.

Three-quarters of respondents said they believed drugs were a problem in their area and of the 1,900 people surveyed more than half said the police weren't doing enough. As often with these statistical insights into life, we ran pages of the news website to capture more of these experiences.

The responses were extraordinary. Literally, hundreds of e-mails telling of direct experience of the problem of drugs; users of all ages and backgrounds, anguished parents and friends of users, shopkeepers and householders affected by dealing outside their front doors and the GPs and teachers coping with it all.

One wrote to us: "Well done, 大象传媒! It was brave decision to take this investigation as main extended item. It is the only way that the public will have a full picture of the enormity of the problem and the lack of action to deal with it."

Many painted a hopeless picture: "Drugs are the scourge of this country and have been for decades. Drug dealers just laugh at the police because they have been operating for so long now they fear no one. The drug business is so powerful and effective that it is hard to break down their operation."

There were also a huge number of people who felt drugs weren't in themselves the real culprit. "The biggest drug problem in my area is alcohol," wrote Simon from Fife, who was the top recommended comment on the debate.

It's by getting this direct route to our audiences that we can explore issues that are at the heart of our communities. We're not policy makers and may have not come up with any answers, but this week we really did feel we had touched the nerve of a nationwide problem.

It's not often that we devote the first 12 minutes of the Six O'Clock News to one subject, but last night we did just that, on the subject of drugs, and the effects they are having on our communities. There was not a particular news story it was attached to. We did our own survey with ICM of what people thought of the effect drugs were having in their area, and our special correspondent, Richard Bilton, went and visited some of the worst affected places. The issue was covered in combination with News 24, the Ten O'Clock News, and the 大象传媒 News website.

I don't think there would be much argument that it was powerful and important stuff and that broadcasting it was in the public interest. But we did have to balance it against the other news stories of the day, and justify the scale of our committment to it.

And our committment was tested. The verdicts in the Lozell's case arrived just before lunchtime. They were the final stage in the story of the murder of a young black boy in Birmingham, who was simply trying to avoid trouble. It was a racially motivated attack that coincided with some of the most serious riots we've seen in Britain. It also had wider social importance in that it highlighted the divisions between the Asian and Afro-Carribean communities in the Lozell's area, and resonated with more general worries about integration between people of different ethnic backgrounds.

After some thought we continued with the plan of running drugs as our lead item. Our poll had shown that three quarters of people thought drugs were a problem in their area, more than half thought the police were not doing enough. By definition in News we are usually driven by events, but sometimes it's good if we step back and find the time to address in a significant way some of the realities of our society.

It's raining, it's pouring... This weather is boring me to tears...

So what better week to choose to highlight the water shortages affecting parts of the UK? Well, OK. If I'm honest, we'd be in the grips of an early summer heatwave, rather than a Donna Summer retrorave.

And 大象传媒 Breakfast's rushed-to-air reactive might look more timely too.

But the fact remains that water levels are at record lows in parts of the UK. And hundreds of of thousands of people are already subject to water restrictions even though it's only May. We know our viewers care about it because when we made reference to the hosepipe bans in force around the South East, we had a huge response.

Many people were concerned about the water companies wasting water. Something we have already put to Thames Water in an interview last Friday. But many more seemed determined to do something in that "Dunkerque" kind of way.

So, why not ask them for their ideas? They've already started flooding in, if you'll excuse the pun. And we shall be highlighting some of the best ones this week on Breakfast.

We've even asked the legendary inventor Trevor Bayliss, of wind up radio fame, to invent a way of getting bath water into the garden (Bill Turnbull's idea).

So, why my obession with parts of the UK? Well, we've also had a steady trickle of viewer e-mails from northern England and Scotland asking us why we're obsessing about water shortages when the problem isn鈥檛 nearly so bad there.

A pertinent question. But surely, saving on water consumption is good for everyone isn't it? You don't have to be in the grip of a drought to want to cut your water use a bit.

As for the rest of our Water Week, the forecast is for more wet weather. In fact, apparently it's going to be wet until our special week ends. I don't think I can take it, 'cause it took so long to bake it, and I'll never have that recipe again.. Again鈥�(to fade)

Halle Berry. Soooo gorgeous. Sigh. But is my, as yet, unrequited appreciation for her sublime beauty a reason for tolerating her "people" - and how far should we entertainment journalists go in meeting the stars' demands and foibles for the greater good of bringing top interviews to millions of listeners and viewers - even if they are drop dead dazzling?

Take the day Halle met Chris Moyles. She was badly briefed - they didn't hit it off and when she left Chris gave, on-air, his less than complimentary verdict on her attitude.

Trouble was, those pesky PRs were listening and when our reporter Nick Wallis (a perfect gent and a top reporter) turned up at her five-star suite to interview Halle about her new movie X-Men 3, her "people" had taken against Radio 1 and we were barred.

Putting extremely rich, young and, ahem, creative people into an environment not unlike house arrest at hotels like the Dorchester or Sanderson is, I think, a recipe for disaster. As a result, the people who tread around these world-famous multi-millionaires, do so extremely carefully.

The PR running this particular junket circus (no, no-one knows why they're called junkets) was spitting blood/all ties severed with R1 etc. Luckily Nick is very charming and rather than walking away, his powers of persuasion worked. Then disaster struck. His recording machine ran out of batteries and he had to raid his digital camera for AAs, spilling them on the carpet as he hastily fumbled to get organised. Halle gracefully slipped to her knees (sigh, again) and joined our Nick on the carpet to retrieve the rogue batteries (OK... you can invent your own headline here).

Anyway despite their star's hand of friendship, Radio 1's relationship remained officially terrible until around midday when they threatened to pull a special screening being held for Radio 1 listeners. We told them to go ahead by all means if that was what they really wanted. Of course, they didn't.

And the moral of the story: sometimes it's worth putting up with PR tantrums if you get to look for batteries on the floor with one of the world's most beautiful women. Or something...

Telegraph: "The 大象传媒 needs to be put back in its public service box, says the chief executive of the radio group Chrysalis" ().

The Times: "A leading teacher has said that some rap music is undermining classroom discipline and has urged the 大象传媒 not to broadcast it" ().

The Herald: "大象传媒 Scotland's head of radio is to relocate to Inverness as part of the corporation's plan to position key editorial roles in regional offices" ()

Eight-and-a-half years after we launched the 大象传媒 News website, we have now reached our five millionth story ID - (the number you see in the address bar of your web browser). It won't mean much to anyone who doesn't work here, but to us it's naturally a landmark. And which story was it? Inconveniently for this blog, it was a story on our Russian language site, and had the headline "袝写袪芯 褏芯褔械褌 芯褋邪写懈褌褜 薪械褋写械褉卸邪薪薪褘褏 写械锌褍褌邪褌芯胁 袛褍屑褘".

It's worth taking a look at this week's Newswatch. Among other things, host Ray Snoddy interviews the 大象传媒's Mark Urban on the issue of conspiracy theories (which we looked at last week).

Ray: "In future, will journalists like you have to pay more attention to the unofficial view of the world, through blogs and the internet?"
Mark: "I think we already do - I think it is a very good way of getting some sense of what people are saying and thinking out there."

Watch the programme in full here.

I鈥檓 sure we鈥檒l take some stick for doing this. There鈥檒l be those who think it鈥檚 not right to give Mark Oaten a platform, or take MPs away from their legislation and constituents. There will be others who think it's unseemly or a waste of the licence fee. Some of the bloggers out there already given us some feedback. Here鈥檚 a sample:

鈥� "That's just conjured images of green lycra that I just didn't need." ()
鈥� " [Mark Oaten] should be aware though that all this exercise will not get him his hair back."
()
鈥� "[You] can already sense the shudders from some party stalwarts who will feel that this kind of public spectacle (entertainment) on national TV won't do the party's image any good.
()
鈥� "Get a hat and suitable condiments ready." ()

As you鈥檇 expect, I鈥檓 a big fan of both the idea and the execution. Think Jamie Oliver and School Dinners. Think too about politics and engagement; about the issues facing ordinary people. Think seeing the mighty struggle, the powerful sweat, and those remote and gilded villagers of Westminster being put through a lot of pain and anguish. It鈥檚 all there.

As for my own pain and anguish 鈥� it鈥檚 pretty much over now. The heart rate is settling, the tremors are lessening and I wish I could say I feel better for it. Well maybe a little. You can catch the series 鈥� which we鈥檙e calling The Body Politics - every Monday for the next six weeks on The Daily Politics on 大象传媒 Two at Noon. We鈥檙e also going to run little tasters on the days in between. There鈥檚 more background, and video of the Body Politics, on our .

An e-mail from Mrs J Daniel, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire:

Why "Silver" surfer? This reference and labelling is, in my view, as derogatory as the term 'blonde bimbo'. My husband bought a computer in the mid-1980s. I am sorry to disillusion them, but this present day generation of IT whizz-kids did not invent computer technology. Enhance, certainly, but before they completely shove the proverbial boot into our faces, I would like to see some credit, where due, and less labelling of those who are considered to be no longer in the mainstream due to either date of birth or colour of hair. I don't consider myself, nor my friends, to be silver' surfers. We are adults and IT literate. Thank you for your time.

I am not enjoying this form of exercise. Really 鈥� I鈥檓 not. My heart is pounding, I feel sick in the stomach, the sweat is beginning to prickle on my arms and shoulders, and my hands are trembling. It鈥檚 my very first blog posting.

But that鈥檚 nothing compared to the exercise that鈥檚 facing four members of the great and the good over the next six weeks. They鈥檙e going to be prodded and poked, measured and weighted, bullied and sweated. They鈥檙e going to tone up their bodies, lose pounds of fat (but hopefully none of their dignity), and try to eat and drink properly. All in a good cause.

The Daily Politics on 大象传媒 Two is filming three MPs and a baroness as they take part in a diet and fitness regime to help themselves shape up, and lead the way in tackling the obesity crisis facing Britain. From Monday until the end of June the Daily Politics cameras will follow them as they get training instruction from the formidable Body Doctor, David Marshall at his London gym. And from what I鈥檝e seen so far, it鈥檚 looking great.

The highlights are the agonies of the MP, Mark Oaten. You remember him - home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, family man and would-be leader of the party, whose affairs with rent boys were exposed earlier this year.

Why鈥檚 he doing it? Well, there鈥檚 a relationship between absolution, pain and humiliation: think hair shirts, pilgrimages on one鈥檚 knees, and self-flagellation. So I think it鈥檚 an act of penitence. Others think it might just be cheap publicity as part of a hopeless attempt at a comeback. But this is what Mark himself told us: "Exercise is a way of cleansing the brain 鈥� it鈥檚 a mental health thing and I want to learn how to do that."

Whatever his reasons, he is suffering. He鈥檚 trying to give up chocolate. He鈥檚 got to limit and improve his eating and drinking. And his regime is a punishing one: an hour-and-a-half three times a week for six weeks. Each visit he鈥檒l do a 15-minute warm up, a 45-minute full body workout involving all the muscle groups, and a 30-minute cardiovascular session. At one point in his first session he 鈥� nearly 鈥� couldn鈥檛 take it. He was on his knees whimpering.

Although Mark has rather hijacked the attention surrounding the series 鈥� with a series of interviews to the media about how its all part of his comeback from hair loss 鈥� the films are actually about much more than him.

There鈥檚 Sailesh Vara, the fortysomething Tory MP from Cambridgeshire, who used to hold a black belt in a martial art in his youth, and who鈥檚 trying to recapture the glory days of his six pack and 30-inch waist. He wants his constituents, the Indian community and Conservatives everywhere to take up the health message.

With him is Meg Hillier, one of the new intake of Labour MPs, who鈥檚 37 and from Hackney. She鈥檚 well up for it, and her plan is to get rid of her "mummy tummy", and push the health message through to kids everywhere. Though she鈥檚 quite fit, she鈥檚 also finding it very tough.

Then there鈥檚 Susan Greenfield, the svelte barnoness with the big brain, leading scientist and member of countless academies, who at fiftysomething is the oldest of the group, but the one with the fewest pounds to shift. For her it鈥檚 about getting the more-than-middle-aged to understand how diet and activity can keep you feeling younger and healthier.

They鈥檙e all as interesting as Mark Oaten in their own ways.

But perhaps the real star is the Body Doctor himself 鈥� David Marshall, trainer to sports starts, celebrities like Ant and Dec, and now MPs. His very high tech gym in Chelsea is the base of all operations. And his approach puts the toughest chief whip and most acerbic Speaker to shame.

How's this for a manifesto pledge: 鈥楾he end product is the empowerment of the individual and their complete and utter belief and knowledge that they and not us have been the primary factor in their physical mental and emotional improvement." He鈥檚 devised the punishment, he鈥檚 a tartar, but he鈥檚 also very good.

Mail on Sunday: "大象传媒 bluffer Guy Goma is facing deportation because he does not have a work permit" ().

The Times: "Just how many people does it take to change a light bulb at the 大象传媒?" ()

The Guardian: 大象传媒 director general Mark Thompson says his competitors are trying to reopen a lost argument in their last-minute fight to limit the licence fee increase ()

The Guardian: writes: "Don't just build 大象传媒 2.0 - build the open-source 大象传媒, please" ()

The Independent: Krishnan Guru-Murthy writes: "While I secretly admire Jeremy Paxman's disdain for doing anything but presenting his television programme, and his refusal to write the Newsnight e-mail to viewers, my generation cannot afford to be so choosy." ()

Financial Times: An opinion piece comments on the role the 大象传媒 World Service Trust has to play in the fight against HIV ()

On the wall of my office there's a chart entitled the Newsnight cone. This is a rough aid to help us think about who are audience are when deciding what to put in the programme. It was inspired in fact by the head of Radio One, and since he's just won an armful of awards including station of the year I feel confident enough to say it's not what Jeremy might call "bollocks"

At the sharp end of the cone in our case are "opinion formers" - politicians, public bodies, media organisations - people who watch Newsnight as if their life depended on it. These are a highly influential, highly desirable audience, but they are few in number.

Next are what we call the "dedicated loyalists". Often related to members of the production team, they lap up what we do, watching maybe three or four times a week. If you're reading this you could well be one of them. They love our agenda, laugh at all our jokes, and some of them - like Jeanette (hello Jeanette) - commune with us one to one on an almost daily basis. There are more dedicated loyalists than opinion formers, but perhaps not many more.

Continue reading 'The news cone' on

The House of Commons leader Jack Straw has . We think he means us, as 大象传媒 News recently launched dramatic new studios in which our presenters spend a brief part of the bulletin standing (although not walking, prancing or dancing).

Changes to TV News often occasion protests. When the 大象传媒 first introduced illustration of its TV bulletins with film and graphics, the Daily Mirror attacked the 大象传媒鈥檚 鈥渃rass stupidity鈥� for 鈥減resenting us with the creaky, stiff-jointed pages of a particularly silly scrapbook.鈥�

Then, when newsreaders eventually appeared on camera, one critic insisted it was vital that no attempts were made by newsreaders to look friendly, as that might end unintentionally in a smirk. Audiences now seem to take newsreaders and graphics on screen in their stride.

Maybe the few viewers who have expressed concern about newsreaders standing up now might eventually come round, as previous generations did.

So why are newsreaders standing up? In the new 大象传媒 studios we have the ability to demonstrate a much wider range of graphical and visual illustration. Those marvellous big screens are best seen in 鈥渨ide shot鈥� and a presenter standing up simply fills the frame more effectively and allows us to see the spectacular images properly. Those images give viewers a window on the world and allow us to display graphics vividly that aid audience understanding.

We know some viewers are concerned about movement by presenters, so we have asked them to stand still and not move their arms too much. We will continue to listen to the concerns of those of the audience who are worried and we鈥檒l experiment with the way we present to make it as comfortable and accessible as possible. But we do have a duty to present the visual side of TV news as effectively as possible, to attract as wide an audience as possible to the news. We are not changing to annoy people or to drive them away, so we鈥檒l continue to weigh up how we are doing.

Looks like Newsround is setting a bad example again. We've done it before and we'll do it again, although we won't go a far as Jeremy Paxman's use of slang.

Our complaint referred to a caption during an item about school bogs (sorry, toilets) which have been equipped with CCTV to cut down on bullying and bunking off (sorry, avoiding) lessons (read the story ).

The caption read "the new loos cost 100 grand" while the voiceover said "doing up the loos has cost the school a hundred thousand pounds".

Our captions reflect the way our audience watch TV. They are not news junkies who listen to every broadcast word. They have an interest in the world around them, but are probably doing other tasks while watching TV. The straps are another way they may absorb information. This is the age group who play games which are multi-layered with music, on screen instructions, action, narrative and hand controls to operate all at the same time.

"Grand" can be found in the dictionary. It fits our style of being informal and accessible to a primary school audience and children feel that Newsround is "their programme".

If children took away from that story an understanding of how school design can be used to make pupils feel safer, that there are decisions to be made about how money is spent in a school, and that the English language is a rich resource with often more than one word for something, then that's well good.

Every morning I wake up to an inbox stuffed with news releases, official statements and the usual load of 'unmissable' bargains offering to make me a million or two.

Most of it never makes it past the delete button. The convenience of the internet means I'm reached just as easily by government departments, official spokespeople, snake-oil salesmen, conspiracy theorists and outright loonies. Being based in the United States means that I probably get more than most from all of the above.

The American sultans of spin would give Alastair Campbell a run for his money, so I read any official release with a sceptical eye, trying to root out the inconvenient fact or the concealed truth buried in the eighth paragraph. News releases give a convenient heads-up, but it's lazy journalism to swallow their contents hook, line and sinker just because it comes from a 'respectable' source.

Similarly, there are many bloggers and commentators out there who go to great lengths to convince the world that Elvis is alive, George Bush was born in Nicaragua or aliens are alive in the Nevada desert. It would be rash to believe any of these theories, but what about claims of government-sponsored massacre in a distant part of the world? Or a junior clerk blowing the whistle on a multinational? Or abuse of women in an ethnic community in New York? Possibly such stories come from a disgruntled employee, or a government malcontent. But again, possibly not...

The argument rages over what we as editors should take seriously in the 'stuff' out there in the blogosphere, and what we should discount. To me, the answer seems rooted in our basic training as journalists. A sceptical eye is necessary, together with oodles of commonsense, and of course a load of fact-checking using trusted sources.

Just because it's a government department doesn't mean that it's necessarily the whole truth. And just because it's an anonymous source with a jaw-dropping claim doesn't mean that it's not.

In today's interactive world we are constantly bombarded with random scraps of information about what our viewers and listeners think of us. I now get daily accounts of what listeners liked and disliked on a whole range of 大象传媒 programmes I never get time to see or hear.

But what do we do with all this new information? How can we identify what is valuable and can help us make better, more relevant programmes from the chaff? For me there remains one Oracle, one place where the owl of Minerva really spreads her wings... The Audience Log.

Yesterday on PM we were treated to a gem. A clear, weighty and beautifully honed view:

"The report on Sir Paul McCartney's marriage was not newsworthy."

For a vast number of Radio Four listeners the above truth is self-evident. That is why we constantly shy away from so called "Entertainment News'. This particular example was actually on the easier end of the spectrum to judge.

Macca is a big deal for our audience, he is one the few figures in popular culture who is. For me the strength and appeal of Radio Four has always been the eclecticism of its journalism. We should be comfortable telling stories about anything, so long as we do it with intelligent and engaging narrative techniques. We should do entertainment news in that spirit.

So I am sorry to the anonymous listener who felt so moved to leave such a carefully crafted comment in the log. I think you're wrong... this time.

Roll on the World Cup.

Days when you do an on-air correction about what the prime minister said in the House of Commons are never going to qualify as a high point. But that's what happened when, on the Six O'Clock News on Wednesday, we quoted the prime minister on illegal immigrants, without making it explicit that he was quoting a former Conservative home secretary. As soon as the piece went out, Downing Street were on the phone accusing us of unfairness.

The problem arose because the prime minister used one of those "delayed drop" answers beloved of MPs (John Prescott had done one just that morning defining the job of deputy prime minister to Tory jeers before revealing that his words were in fact those of Michael Heseltine).

Mr Blair had said (once again to Tory jeers): 鈥淭here are no official estimates of the number of illegal immigrants into the United Kingdom. By its very nature, illegal immigration is difficult to measure and any estimates would be highly speculative," before revealing that he was quoting Michael Howard. Except that alert Tories found him out and interrupted before he could do the drop properly. In the rush of the edit we cut the clip off right there, thus denying him his point that no Government has ever known these figures.

So with the minutes ticking away to the end of the programme, we had to decide what to do. The problem was that in one sense it was misleading (we didn't make it clear he was quoting) but in another it clearly did represent his position. Being a well-brought up 大象传媒 person, I referred up and we decided that we should make the factual correction and tell the viewers, once they had made it through the weather, of our mistake. It wasn't an easy decision, but in the end if we're to say we're open to admitting our mistakes, then sometimes we just have to put our hands up.

The Guardian: Interview with Newsnight's Martha Kearney - "Jeremy Paxman winds her up about doing Woman's Hour endlessly - she will walk into the Newsnight studio and, in front of guests, he'll tweet: 'Any jam recipes, Martha?'" ().

The Telegraph: "Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons, said he believed newscasters were overpaid and mocked those who "prance" around studios" ().

The Guardian: "Breakfast DJ Chris Moyles yesterday clashed with Oscar-winning actor Halle Berry after she accused him of having "a racist moment" live on air" ().

Temper tantrums, nagging and multi-million pound settlements. The story of the Heather and Macca split was juicy for the tabloids but clearly makes some 大象传媒 journalists nervous about following the tab's agenda.

After all, our private lives are our own business, aren't they?

Not when you're Paul McCartney they're not - and not when you have this couple's talent for self-publicity. Remember him having a go at Wyclef Jean for his ultimate bling (alleged) Polar Bear coat, or Heather's against J-Lo's collection at New York Fashion week, pictures in the snow by seals, landmine campaigns, not to mention about Heather from the great man himself.

But the Beatles were a long time ago - and does the audience care? It may not be the best Radio 1 story ever but the fur trade, fashion, music, money and love splits go a long way to whetting the audience's appetite - and while we're on about the money, at least Heather will be making some more of her own when her new book comes out next week. It's all about the key to a balanced and stress free life. I think I'll get a copy.

A selection of comments being made about the 大象传媒 on blogs around the world...

鈥� Richard H's blog: "When I checked my email just now I found an e-mail titled "Interview request from 大象传媒, Today..." ().

鈥� Tom Morris: "What the 大象传媒 don't seem to understand is that user-generated content is happening all around them" ().

鈥� L'Ombre de l'Olivier: "The 大象传媒's "From Our Own Correspondent" used to be a flagship program but right now it seems to be more a flagship example of 大象传媒 bias" ()

鈥� The Medium is Not Enough: "The 大象传媒 planned to turn itself into Italian TV for charity" ().

鈥� John Pilger on Comment is Free: "The 大象传媒 Ten O'Clock News last night wasn't news: it was a series of pronouncements by the spokespeople of the spokespeople" ().

The danger of the the task British troops face in Afghanistan is becoming clearer by the day.

On last night's Ten O'clock News last night, Alastair Leithhead raised concerns that Pakistani officials are turning a blind eye to insurgents crossing the border - with the express aim of attacking British soldiers. He went back to the Afghan caves which had been used to store arms, and which had been destroyed by coalition forces in 2002. He found that the same caves are being used by the Taliban and insurgents -
do watch the piece here if you haven't had chance to see it.

At the minute, we've got a bit of a problem with comments not appearing promptly.

The number of comments you see after each post (and on the right hand side of the main blog page) is the number of comments that should be on each post. But we have some technical problems which slows this process...

Here's why it happens.. (you may have seen this explanation before, on Nick Robinson's blog..)

"The difference is due to the way that the content of the blogs is published. Without going into too much heavy detail, when a blog is updated, certain bits of it are rebuilt and certain bits are automatically changed. These rebuilt sections are then transferred across multiple servers. Sometimes due to the heavy load on bbc.co.uk some of the bits find themselves stuck in a queue waiting to be published. The rebuilt bits can take longer to arrive than the others... and so there is sometimes a disparity between number of comments 'totals' and actual published numbers."

We are looking into a solution.

Paul Reynolds, the 大象传媒 News website's world affairs correspondent, . He has been deluged with e-mails since then. He writes:

"I knew when I wrote this piece that it would draw out the conspiracy theorists and I have not been disappointed. As it happens I was already in e-mail exchange with one of them before the latest Pentagon video frames were released and she had startled me by suggesting that the missing passengers (after all, if no plane hit the Pentagon, what did happen to them and where is Barbar Olson who called her husband from the plane?) might have been taken away to be "gassed". The e-mails are along simlar lines. I attach one below. Each and everyone of the theories has been exposed and I only wish I had the time and space to have gone into each.

Read the rest of this entry

Financial Times: "Senior newspaper executives have attacked the 大象传媒 over plans to move into digital media" (, subscription req).

Independent: The 大象传媒's David Loyn writes on Afghanistan - "The international system is sucking the country dry" ().

The Sun: "大象传媒 chiefs yesterday pole-axed plans for a sexy spoof of Strictly Come Dancing - stars Zoe Ball and Natasha Kaplinsky were lined up for Strictly Come Pole Dancing as part of Sport Relief" ().

The 大象传媒 has been accused of biased reporting by both opposing sides in Sri Lanka. Bernard Gabony, the South Asia editor of the 大象传媒 News website, .

Putting News First. That's what our brand campaign says. That's what we do on 大象传媒 World. Except some of our viewers need to be convinced. Which is why the latest advertising campaign - which has - continues to hammer home the theme of news as the heart of everything we do.

The campaign was first introduced about 18 months ago, in response to research which suggested some audiences were confused about the role of the channel. At the same time, the schedule was changed to increase the amount of live news and business content, and we hope that anyone watching now will be clear about our purpose (though we were pretty clear to start with!).

The brand campaign, which features stories of bravery and enterprise from 大象传媒 correspondents and crews, is designed to send out the message that we go that bit further to bring you the news; and that we don't just tell you what's happened, we tell you why. This is judged to be one of our core advantages over our international competitors; we're perceived as offering more range and depth.

The campaign has featured John Simpson's burka, Hilary Andersson's gas mask and Matthew Price's experiences from the Middle East (filmed, as it happens, in White City, but that's another story). The latest incarnation, launched this week, is an updated series of print ads. They feature artefacts from news stories - a flak jacket, amongst other examples (see some of them ) - but also have testimonials from influential viewers...

Read the rest of this entry

I'm sorry if any of our viewers were offended by Jeremy's use of the word "bollocks" (which, if you want, you can see here).

Jeremy was - jovially - expressing his annoyance that Newsnight had been duped by a press release from the Baltic Centre which claimed that Sam Taylor Wood's latest work showed a man playing a cello which had been digitally removed.

Many of our viewers contacted us to say they thought he was simply miming, and when we contacted the artist she admitted that that was indeed the case. I think Jeremy was attracted by the alliteration of the "Baltic talking bollocks", and in mitigation it was 11.15pm.

Daily Mail: "The man who accidentally found himself on live television commentating on computers for the 大象传媒 agreed to return and discuss his bizarre experience" ().

The Scotsman: "The 大象传媒 mole who leaked the huge salaries of its star presenters was yesterday unmasked as a temporary office worker" ()

Daily Express: Ann Widdecombe praises 大象传媒 One's Real Story (no link, but more on that here)

Daily Mail: Edwina Currie says 大象传媒 Two drama The Line of Beauty is "a portrait of Thatcher's Britain as seen through the prism of a 大象传媒 which still seems to hate her 16 years after she left office" (no link)

You can read previous '大象传媒 in the news' posts by clicking here.

In these days of tight budgets and efficiencies, an offer of something-for-nothing is always welcome.

And when that something-for-nothing turns out to be expensively researched and beautifully shot documentary material whose broadcast might just stop a mother having her fourth child forcibly adopted because of a medical mistake, well it would be churlish to say no.

John Sweeney's moving story of the mother whose first three children were taken away after she was thought to have abused one of them had it all - powerful testimony from the parents, a medical whodunnit around the issue of whether she suffered from (and could have passed on) a genetic predisposition to brittle bones which could explain suspicious fractures, and the gripping drama of whether her not-yet-born fourth child would be taken away as well.

It also had a raft of legal problems related to cases in the notoriously secret Family Courts, a mind boggling chain of scientific reasoning that made me realise why it had being done as a half hour documentary in the first place, and precious little in the way of detailed response from social services or the doctors involved.

So John's original script for the Six would have amounted to probably seven minutes and made perfect sense. We then cut it back until it was about two minutes and you couldn't understand a word of it. Eventually John and producer Vicky Ridell cut a powerful piece at just under three minutes that satisfied John, her, and most importantly, the lawyers. A great piece for the Six, and hopefully a bigger audience for the real thing on .

After all the fuss - and media attention, Guy Goma could have been forgiven for not wanting to set foot anywhere near TV Centre again. But he made the brave, if maybe rash, decision to re-appear on 大象传媒 News 24 - where we put him in touch with the original intended guest Guy Kewney (see my earlier posting, here)

They were charm personified to one another - and Guy Goma showed himself to be a real star: innocently overwhelmed by the whole ratpack experience, but very much Up For It. The question everyone wanted to know: did he get that job as a Data Systems Cleanser?

Unfortunately the answer is "no" - a fact that ITN felt able to inform him of, live on air. The guy (Goma, that is) deserves a medal for his patience and good humour in dealing with quite so many appalling hacks - us included.

Someone else who deserves a medal is the business presenter who originally interviewed him, Karen Bowerman. She's been through the mill almost as much as Guy. And her crime: to warn me moments before going on air that her interviewee might not be of the usual high quality and then to keep the poor man talking, by asking very gentle questions, while we scrambled to get the next guest lined up.

To answer some of the comments made to my first post (it IS very interactive, isn't it!):

鈥� Jeremy says he's waiting for an apology from News 24 - Simon McCoy and Carrie Gracie apologised to both Guys and to the audience. Twice.

鈥� Neil suggests we should get Guy Goma back to guest edit - an attractive idea, but possibly tad controversial for my slot on News 24 just at the moment.

And a question for YOU: this blog is - currently - an internal 大象传媒 thing. So how come chunks of the original entry ended up in this morning's papers? Huh?

There's an article in today's Daily Express about how a new 鈥渋nternationalist extremism鈥� is allegedly sweeping the country.

The article is wrong when it says the 大象传媒 News website did not cover an interview the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu gave to the Today programme; we wrote a story about his claim that some local government policies had led to the impression that migrants were being favoured over people of British origin. .

As for the rest of the evidence cited in the piece about the new doctrine said to be tightening its grip over British public life (the 大象传媒 included), that's perhaps a debate for another day.

More on Guy Goma, who came for a job interview and got an interview instead. We thought the only way to resolve this was to get both Guys on telly at once - you can see the interview here.

The Sun: "This is the mystery TV pundit Guy Goma mistakenly grilled by 大象传媒 reporters" (, or read our exclusive from yesterday here).

The Telegraph: Craig Brown - "Virtually everyone interviewed on the radio and television news is either pretending to know something he doesn't, or pretending not to know something he does" ().

The Guardian: Tim Dowling - "I should have asked for a driver. At least then there might have been a chance of them interviewing him instead of me" ().

Daily Express: Patrick O'Flynn - "A rival form of extremism is tightening its grip over our politics - its influence is far-reaching within the judiciary, government and the 大象传媒".

You can read previous '大象传媒 in the news' posts by clicking here.

You may not be familiar with the name Guy Kewney, but you will certainly have heard of the embarrassing incident when someone who clearly wasn't IT expert Guy Kewney was interviewed in a business slot on News 24. It's given Fleet Street's finest - and many insiders too - a good chuckle. (Watch the interview here)

puts it thus: "It appears that the joke has irresistible appeal to my fellow hax: specifically, anybody who isn't News 24 thinks it's hilarious."

He's not wrong. The mix-up has caused much gnashing of teeth, tightening up of procedures and has spawned this - the first News 24 entry on the Editors' blog.

Sadly, the real sequence of events is not quite as amusing as the papers suggest:

1) Harassed producer sets off at a brisk pace - much of the activity on News 24 is conducted at a brisk pace - to get his guest from "reception". You've guessed: wrong reception... the real Guy Kewney was at stage door, our man legs it to Stage Six reception.

2) Producer asks receptionist to point out Guy Kewney. The Wrong Guy is identified. Producer asks again - having seen photo of real Guy (he describes himself as "very pink") on website, he is nonplussed by being sent in direction of a rather darker individual. Same answer.

3) Producer asks waiting man: "Are you Guy Kewney?" Wrong Guy replies in the affirmative and is whisked up to News 24's studio with only moments to spare before going on air.

4) Business presenter Karen Bowerman has premonition of disaster - gets message to editor (me) that guest "seems not to know too much about the subject".

5) Ed Has Idea: issues instruction to ask guest ONE question and then interview our (excellent and knowledgeable) reporter at High Court, Rob Pittam.

6) Instruction fails to reach correct people: the wrong Guy is asked three questions, with toe-curling results.

7) Only later does it transpire that real Guy is still waiting patiently in reception - prompting question: "Who the hell is Wrong Guy?"

Well, he's NOT a cabbie.

He is, in fact, a graduate in Economics and Business Studies who hails from the Congo. He was at Television Centre for a job interview - as a "Data Support Cleanser" in the Business Information Department. Poor soul, he was nervous and just did as he was told.

When I tracked him down today, he said that he had found his on air interview both "very short" and "very stressful" and was disappointed not to have been asked about data cleansing. He was prepared to return to the airwaves: "Happy to speak about any situation" - but would insist next time on "preparing myself".

How did the mix-up occur? We were hoping to interview Guy Kewney; we actually interviewed Guy Goma. Could have happened to anyone...

Should the 大象传媒 News website link to the BNP's online pages? In doing so are we driving traffic to the party's "ignorant, hateful and cowardly" content, as one complainant insists?

The disclaimer that "the 大象传媒 is not responsible for external sites" cuts little ice: "I am not asking the 大象传媒 to take responsibility for the racist content of this particular website, but you must take responsibility for linking to this vile content."

The easy thing to do would be to adopt an all-or-nothing policy. After all, if people really want to find their way to this kind of material then Google is only a click away. Why help the process? A blanket ban would relieve us of the Wisdom of Solomon judgement calls.

So, for that matter, would a policy of linking to anything and everything and that would certainly chime with web audiences who see editorialising as censorship.

In reality we make decisions on which sites to link to on a case-by-case basis and we consider them carefully, in relation to the news agenda and the context around each story. In general, we link to sites where there is sufficient editorial justification. We take into account the 大象传媒 guidelines on harm and offence and the law relating to such matters as defamation or incitement to racial hatred.

And as far as the BNP is concerned we have not in general linked to their site but, in the interests of impartiality, we have done so during election periods. Sure, we drive traffic to the site but click-throughs don't necessarily convert to support for the party. In fact, the opposite may be true.

The agonising in the 48 hours before broadcast centred on two things: securing the main political guest and overcoming the endless technical obstacles that seemed destined to scupper plans to broadcast live from an office block overlooking Tower Bridge.

The technical problems of outside broadcasts often dwarf the editorial issues and so it was this week. Could we twist sufficient arms to get access to the offices of 'Visit London' :floor to ceiling glass with a stunning view of London? Yes, but a process of tortuous negotiation proved just as tough as securing an interview with the PM. And on that front we failed.

As so often, the editorial opportunities looked rich at the start of the week. The PM was interested. So was the Tory leader. Blair's insistence that he wanted to cut thought the "Westminster froth" and talk policy made us more hopeful. And Cameron's success at PMQs and good poll ratings also augured well.

There was a long-standing promise of the first broadcast interview with the deputy prime minister... and aides to the new home secretary and the new foreign secretary were both interested in the prospect of a session with Marr. With so many alluring possibilities it was perhaps inevitable that every one would have evaporated by Friday afternoon. Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer to the rescue.

As it happened, the Human Rights Act and its unintended consequences was a huge story by Sunday, so Falconer looked on the money - addressing an issue that featured in almost every Sunday newspaper editorial. And how were the vital minutes spent before we went on air? Trying to fix a bust Autocue and working out how to get the American ambassador's heavily armed motorcade anywhere near our building when it turned out a vast cycle rally had been routed precisely where the men with curly bits coming out of their ears hoped to park the US limos.

Telling Ken to stuff his congestion charge is one thing, mowing down women and children out for a Sunday bike ride was judged a diplomatic incident too far. Of course a solution was found eventually and the show went on air with a full set of guests, with autocue and with a good story. Who could ask for more?

Guardian: Audiences for the 大象传媒 World Service have reached record levels ()

The Sun: "TV bosses were last night desperate to sign up a cabbie grilled on live telly by blundering 大象传媒 reporters" (, and more details)

Independent: Former 大象传媒 correspondent Tom Mangold says "if Panorama makes one more film about the NHS, I shall personally sit on the steps of White City, pour unleaded petrol over myself and ignite in protest." ()

The Times reports that on Monday, News 24 mistakenly interviewed a taxi driver thinking he was Guy Kewney, an expert on the Apple Corps v Apple Computer court case. (, and the real )

Guardian: Not for the first time, Radio 4 listeners are up in arms. The cause is a 'sexist', 'racist', 'rubbish' phone-in show called Down the Line. But we've been had. ()

Guardian: 大象传媒 radio widens gaps over rivals ()

Telegraph on July 7 report: During its years in office, the Government has gone to the most tortuous lengths to evade responsibility for all sorts of faults. The appointment of a tame judge ensured the inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly shifted the blame for that tragedy on to the 大象传媒 rather than on to Labour's bullying spin machine, where it properly belonged. ()

Independent: 大象传媒 asks staff to step in after 'Top of the Pops' audience crisis ()

This blog aims to explain the editorial decisions and dilemmas faced by the teams running the 大象传媒's news service - radio, TV, and interactive. It will feature contributions from 大象传媒 editors, along with your comments and questions.

The 大象传媒 wants to be open and accountable, and so this site is a public space where you can engage with us as much as the medium allows. We're happy for you to criticise the 大象传媒 in your e-mails and comments, and to ask serious, probing questions of us - we'll do our best to respond to them.

Comments on this blog will be moderated. When you submit a comment, we will read it and decide whether to publish it. We aim to include as many comments as we can, but we won't publish any which are abusive, are inappropriate on the grounds of taste and decency, or which appear to be part of a concerted lobbying attempt. There's more on our moderation policy in these 大象传媒 Online House Rules.

Comments should be based around the original post and subsequent discussion. If you want to make a general comment, then please e-mail us instead. We can't promise to respond to every e-mail, but we'll do our best to read them all.

You should also bear in mind that e-mailing us, or leaving a comment on the blog, is not the same as making a formal complaint. If you want to do that, this website will help you - and this way, you're guaranteed to receive a formal response.

For comparison purposes, here are links to some of the rules applied by our contemporaries - , , and in the USA, and in the UK.

大象传媒 News gathers and produces national daily news, business, political and current affairs programmes on 大象传媒 television and radio.

It is also responsible for the continuous news channels 大象传媒 News 24, 大象传媒 Parliament, 大象传媒 World, interactive services, Ceefax and .

大象传媒 News is highly respected both in the UK and around the world, from the World Service which reaches a global audience of more than 150 million listeners with hundreds of bulletins in more than 40 languages every day, to the 大象传媒's flagship television news programme The Ten O'Clock news programme on 大象传媒 One.

The breadth and depth of 大象传媒 news coverage is unrivalled, with subject specialists who can throw a spotlight on people and stories which are not widely known.

The bulk of programming comes from the news centre in , west London - the largest such operation in the world.

Political programming, including the 大象传媒 Parliament channel, is based in the heart of Westminster at Millbank while international radio programming comes from the home of World Service - Bush House in central London.

Around 3,500 people work for 大象传媒 News, both across the UK and in key news bureaux around the world.

You can find more information about 大象传媒 News on , and on our .