- Alistair Burnett
- 28 Jun 06, 03:11 PM
Last night, The World Tonight won the for radio for a series of reports we ran last year on forced evictions and forced abortions in the Chinese countryside by the 大象传媒's Beijing Correspondent, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes.
Winning awards is great for morale. It's recognition that we do more than slap each other on the back and that others - out there, outside the 大象传媒 - recognise the quality of what we do.
However, I have to admit to mixed feelings at entering for an award from a campaigning organisation because that was not what motivated me to commission the reports. This came home to me when I was giving an interview after the award presentation to Amnesty's PR people, and I felt I had to point out that we didn't run the reports in order to support any campaign, but because I felt we need to give rounded coverage of the China story.
The emergence (or in the grand sweep of history the re-emergence) of China as an economic powerhouse is more than a story of extraordinary growth statistics, gleaming skyscrapers, and Chinese investment in Africa. And while many Chinese are becoming better off, there are losers in this story and it is important to hear their voices so our listeners can make sense of the story for themselves.
Alistair Burnett is editor of the World Tonight
- Amanda Farnsworth
- 28 Jun 06, 10:48 AM
We had an exclusive from our medical correspondent yesterday - . He was one of the young men who reacted almost fatally to a drug being tested in .
It was a moving interview and one of the most moving things was how Ryan was very matter of fact about the reality that he will have to lose most of his fingers and toes because they've essentially died as part of his reaction to the drug.
Life goes on, he said. For us on the programme, we were again confronted with the issue of how much do we show of Ryan's injuries. In truth I didn't think this was a hard one - his hands were unbandaged, the tips of his fingers simply black, and it wasn't too unpleasant and of course the fact that he was going to undergo amputation was at the heart of the story.
His toes were covered and I am told looked far worse. But these issues - about showing strong images of injury or suffering - are the subject of continued and heated debate in the newsroom. Iraq and Gaza are just two of the stories recently where we've had to make difficult judgements. I think I shall be blogging on this subject frequently.
Amanda Farnsworth is editor of Inside Sport.
- Vicky Taylor
- 28 Jun 06, 09:59 AM
About a week ago, when we first asked people if they had family relatives who had fought in the Somme, we were surprised to get over 50 e-mails back within an hour. Now has just under 500 contributions, many of course with moving, heroic tales of how young lives were lost. Photographs too - obviously carefully kept in a cupboard over the years, now in the computer age, scanned and shared with thousands.
News 24 and the Six O'Clock News have been reporting from France and asking for people's memories. This is one of the responses, which came from a 16-year-old boy:
"I've been watching your series on The Somme with fascination, as I have just been on a school trip with other Year 11s to visit the whole Western Front. It was an amazing experience, once in a lifetime, and totally unexpectedly I found I had an ancestor who had died on the Somme, and who is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial. The experience was totally awe-inspiring, and moved me to researching my great-great-great-great- uncle's history."
I read this after spending an hour at a rather down-beat presentation about public participation in civic life and why Britain fares so badly compared to other European countries and the United States.
To find that so many people want to share something of an event which happened 90 years ago certainly helped me put some of those findings in perspective.
Vicky Taylor is editor of Interactivity
The Independent: "Kirsty Young, anchor of Five News, has been confirmed as the next presenter of Desert Island Discs." ()
The Guardian: "The government will unveil plans to involve the public in the search for members of the new 大象传媒 Trust." ()
The Guardian: "A quarter of the journalists in the 大象传媒's flagship television current affairs department are to be forced to take compulsory redundancy." ()
