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The Editors

Editors in tray
Rod McKenzie

Religion on Radio 1


Radio 1's attitude to religion has attracted a this week. The Trust is being asked to look at how much religious programming Radio 1 offers to its 10 million plus young listeners - Bishops lined up to say we should do more. One soon-to-be ordained priest fired a shot at our news bulletins saying that on Easter Sunday there had been no mention of, well... God.

Radio One logoTwo issues here: so I'll leave the bigger "How Much God for Radio 1" to one side for the network bosses and the Trust to debate, and tackle the news agenda issue. In short Arun Arora, a Newsbeat listener, said he'd heard no mention of Easter on Radio 1 bulletins while listening on Easter Sunday...

    "While every other ´óÏó´«Ã½ news bulletin made reference to the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York, there was no mention on Radio 1. You would not have known, listening to Radio 1, what Easter was about, or the fact that Easter was a Christian festival just by listening to Radio 1."

So has he got a point?

Do we mention Diwali, Ede or Passover - or Christmas Day - just for the sake of it? In my view, no. To be a news story there has got to be something happening. That something needs to be interesting, relevant and significant for the target audience. Clearly a statement from the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury may be highly relevant and interesting for some audiences - but not for others.

Like it or not, our audience research demonstrates what most of us instinctively feel - that organised Christian religion isn't exactly, well, massive for younger audiences. It currently rates near the very bottom of a list of subject areas under 30s want to hear more about, according to work commissioned by ´óÏó´«Ã½ News.

On the day in question there were some very interesting news stories around competing for attention: The 15 sailors and Marines held captive by Iran had been told they could sell their stories to the media, and a storm was breaking over that decision. The Mujahedeen Army had posted a message on the internet claiming responsibility for a roadside bomb that killed four British soldiers in Iraq. Nato forces were claiming success against the Taleban in Afghanistan, we carried a police appeal over the stabbing of a teenager in south London, there was a Grand Prix and Premiership action - and just a couple of minutes an hour or less to cram it all into. For my money, the Easter messages just didn't cut the mustard.

Does this make us anti-religion? No. Recently we've made documentaries about sexual abstinence linked to religious belief and are making another about forgiveness. We've tracked the growth of Islam among young Britons and its impact on aspects of modern life and will continue to cover and uncover stories with a religious or moral theme.

But God-slots by date doesn't feel right. I guess it's eternal damnation for me if He doesn't agree though.

Rod McKenzie is editor of Newsbeat and 1Xtra News

Gary Smith

Beyond Westminster


On Thursday 3 May, much of the UK goes to the polls. In England, there’s a big set of local elections pretty much everywhere except London. In Wales, voters elect their assembly. And – perhaps the biggest contest of all - in Scotland, there are elections for the parliament and councils too (I spent last weekend on the phone to my aged mum in Dunoon trying to explain the three different votes she has, and the intricacies of the Additional Member PR system).

With all this going on, things get a bit quieter around Parliament in London. Most MPs are away campaigning. With the tumbleweed blowing through the corridors of power, political correspondents – accustomed to spending much of their working lives inside the Westminster bubble – seize the chance to emerge blinking into the sunlight, and travel Britain gauging the mood of the nation.

blackpool.jpgSo in recent days Nick Robinson has been to Blackpool calling bingo numbers and talking to men with tattoos (which you can watch here); James Hardy in the Midlands has found disillusioned Labour voters cuddling up to the BNP (which you can watch here); and nurses have demonstrated a robotic body to Guto Harri, as he checked out rumours of a resurgent Tory vote in Wales (which you can watch on Friday's Ten O'Clock news).

It’s not rocket science – if you want to find out what people are really thinking, go out and talk to them. We sometimes boldly give it a go even when there aren’t elections going on. But so often we get sucked into the Westminster vortex, where - as Tony Blair said recently - a raised eyebrow from him will get variously reported and analysed as support for/ scepticism about a David Miliband leadership campaign.

Not to say this stuff isn’t important.

But all three correspondents mentioned above have reported back to me feelings of surprise at some of the views they’ve encountered, and a degree of enlightenment through connection with members of the voting public.

So an election campaign – where there aren’t endless Westminster-based news conferences – can be an invigorating business, at least for correspondents who spend most of their lives in one small area of London.

When the results come in next Thursday and Friday, there’ll be loads of coverage – but it’s not been so intense during the campaign. How do you think we’ve judged that – too much? Too little? Have we covered the issues you think are important? Let me know – we’ve still got a few days left to liberate yet more of our correspondents from the shackles of Westminster and send them out round the country.

Gary Smith is editor, political news

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´óÏó´«Ã½ in the news, Friday

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  • 27 Apr 07, 10:11 AM

Press Gazette: Reports on Mark Thompson’s comments that ´óÏó´«Ã½ plans to develop a network of local television stations are now uncertain following the licence fee settlement. ()

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