大象传媒

Is fifty the new forty? Or even the new thirty? Anyway we're facing it. Collectively. The Today programme will have been broadcasting for half a century this October - on the 28th to be precise.

But rather than bask in the glow of a golden anniversary we thought we'd share our celebrations with those who share our birthday. We're inviting those who are also turning fifty on 28 October to get in touch. And, should the birthday mood take them, to blog their memories and contribute to an online scrapbook of the Today Generation.

Gradually over the next few months we hope to build up a picture of what today's fifty-year-olds have seen, and how the country has changed as they've grown.

Some have already started blogging - it's all very much in the spirit of Web 2.0, so they write and post pictures and video as much as they want, and then we showcase the best bits on our website and eventually, in October, on air.

At the moment the main focus is on childhood during the 60s and the first news events they remember - the earliest seems to be the very cold winter of 1962-63 - just like the floods, the weather made the news and lodged in the memory of five-year-olds.

More members of the Today generation - born on 28 October 1957 - are very welcome to join in. There are contact details here on our website if you'd like to get in touch.

But just as anyone does when they reach a significant birthday, we've been looking back, contemplating the highs and lows and how we've evolved and "grown". When we found out some of our colleagues in telly wanted to make a programme about us, we felt we were being treated like royalty - only better, we hope, in the light of recent events.

But our blushes of humility were replaced with those of shame when we realised we couldn't look back on our achievements as comprehensively as we'd have liked because we didn't have the tapes. It's an old 大象传媒 problem, due sometimes to over-diligent spring cleaning, sometimes to careless filing. Whatever happened, we haven't got a recording of that first programme from 28 October 1957. It feels a bit like finding your mum has thrown away your first lock of hair, or your dad didn't bother to stick the first photo of you in the family album, but we're bearing up and no fingers are being pointed.

Instead we're asking around to see if anyone else has a recording of that very first programme. There's always a chance a radio enthusiast was taping new output back in 1957, and if anyone did we'd love to hear from them. We know was interviewed and one of the correspondents, Reg Turnill, who made a report for that first ever edition has contacted us to say he has a copy of his script. So we're piecing it together slowly, like bit of pot in an archaeological dig. If you have any fragments of the first ever Today programme, do get in touch.

Financial Times: Columnist Jonathan Guthrie on the amount of coverage given to news stories about the media. ()

The Times: Praise for Evan Davis as a presenter on the Today programme. ()

This weekend the Mail on Sunday published under the headline, "大象传媒 may be prosecuted for offering 拢40,000 to 'child smugglers'".

It followed a report on Thursday's 大象传媒 Ten O'Clock News (which the programme's editor blogged about here) exposing a Bulgarian man willing to sell children.

The Mail on Sunday quoted extensively from a press conference given by the chief of police in Varna, Bulgaria, where the investigation was carried out. He said the 大象传媒 offered money for the children and that, according to their information, "the 大象传媒's investigation was flawed." He added, "we have found nothing to back up claims of an organised group selling children for 鈧�60,000."

The article also included the paragraph, "neighbours who know the man added that they would not be surprised if he had taken money from the 大象传媒's journalists to fabricate the story, but doubted he was involved in baby-trafficking". It also made a point of the fact that the story comes in the wake of 大象传媒 staff being suspended after faked phone-in competitions.

However the police chief made a number of demonstrably inaccurate comments in his press conference and clearly has a vested interest in down-playing the significance of the 大象传媒's investigation, as it reveals potential criminal activity in his jurisdiction. For instance, the police chief claimed that the 大象传媒 had sacked the journalist responsible for the report and had written a letter of apology - both of which are untrue.

The 大象传媒 did not offer money for the children. In fact "Harry" - who boasted to us that he was a people trafficker, and has a criminal conviction for it in Germany - brought a succession of children to us, and set a price of up to 鈧�60,000. The evidence is on tape for all to see - you can watch the report here.

The police chief claims we deliberately attempted to delay the arrest of "Harry" by providing false information. Again, this is incorrect. He also claims Varna doesn't have a problem with people trafficking. Both the United Nations and the European Union say it does - with reports warning of many gangs .

The investigation was carried out under strict editorial guidelines, with the 大象传媒's Editorial Policy department consulted at every point - it exposed a trade in children going on within the European Union, something of great public interest. 大象传媒 News is proud of the report and the journalists who worked on it - at significant personal risk - and we stand by the report, and how it was made, fully.

What is a "coconut?"

It's perhaps a new term to you, but when we went on the street and talked to British Asians about their concerns, it was something that came up time and time again. "Coconut" is used by Asian people to describe other Asians who act or think like white people. The idea is that you may be brown on the outside but on the inside you are white - it can be used teasingly or it can be a deep insult.

We decided to do some more rigorous research about "coconuts" and a number of other issues of identity for the Asian Network's "Asian Nation" project. We commissioned a poll from ICM who asked Asians if they would describe themselves as a coconut. Perhaps not surprisingly for a term that is undoubtedly derogatory only 12 per cent did. But a third said that they thought you needed to BE a coconut to get on in British society. To find more about our poll have a look .

If you listen to the Asian Network you will know that the issues of identity crop up again and again as first, second, and now a third generation of people born and brought up here wrestle with their cultural identity. They all have to balance their cultural heritage with the influences they get from modern day British society.

The Asian Network project is our contribution to the 大象传媒's commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of partition. Other parts of the 大象传媒 are looking closely at the events of 60 years ago and their effect on India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. We felt that our focus should be on our British Asian audience and we've asked them to send their thoughts on their lives now to be put up on our special website, which we've launched today.

The Guardian: Reports a poll which indicates that public trust in the 大象传媒 has fallen sharply in the wake of recent scandals. ()

The Telegraph: "The 大象传媒's long-awaited internet TV service - iPlayer - has successfully passed its most important test: remaining fully-functional for its first 48 hours." ()

The Independent: A reporter spends a day with the Ten O'Clock News team. ()

Last night I met the editor and presenter of the Serbian equivalent of Newsnight, who was in London on a fact-finding mission and keen to see Newsnight in the flesh. It quickly became apparent that he is very familiar with our output and when I asked how come he said he subscribes to Newsnight's podcast and regularly steals ideas from us.

Heartwarming, but also a little heartbreaking because will be the last, at least for now. It's been part of a trial of video podcasts which the 大象传媒 has been running for the past year, the aim being to find out what viewers want from services like this and how they use them.

That video trial has now come to an end (my colleague Mark has blogged more about this here), so this week's edition, including highlights from our special programme on Islam, discussion of the floods, and an intriguing piece about community TV in Belgium, will be the last. The 大象传媒 now plans to look at how the trial went and later in the year will decide what happens next.

So thanks to Zoran and everyone else who subscribed, we hope you enjoyed it and will let us know what you thought.

Last night the Ten O'Clock News exposed .

The organised criminal behind it provided our team with a number of options - all girls under five, one as young as 18 months. He boasted about how he had tried and tested routes into the UK. We told him we had had problems adopting a child in the UK - but he wasn't bothered to find out more, and it is clear that most of the children supplied by gangs end up as domestic slaves or in the sex trade.

It was truly shocking to see a man who saw children as commodities - but it was tragic to see families (often living in grinding poverty) prepared to sell their child. One grandfather wanted us to buy a girl without the mother's knowledge.

We decided to investigate this area for a number of reasons. There were a lot of theories that Madeleine McCann could have been abducted by a gang hoping to sell her, and we'd seen Home Office figures suggesting that at least 330 children were sold to people in the UK between 2005 and 2006 (of course they're just the ones the authorities know about).

What became clear is that selling children is a real business - but its roots are in poverty, and abduction is rare. Families are prepared to sell their children without knowing their destination because they want money. Take a look at Sangita Myska's piece (click here) and you will see people with a standard of living that would normally be associated with the developing world, not the European Union.

There were of course major concerns for the safety of the children we showed last night. I want to assure you that we took that incredibly seriously - working very closely with our editorial policy department to make sure that we did not encourage criminal activity or put children in danger. As soon as we knew who the children were we alerted the authorities.

Three people have been detained and the Bulgarian authorities assure us that they are doing all they can for the children. But the sad reality is that people are willing to supply children to a demanding sex trade.

The Telegraph: Former 大象传媒 business editor Jeff Randall writes about working at the corporation. ()

The Guardian: A blog on the newspaper's website praises Evan Davis for his recent appearences on the Today programme. ()

If you are looking at the 大象传媒 News website from outside the UK there are some new developments to tell you about.

We are upgrading the technical quality of the video on the site for users overseas so that anyone anywhere in the world with a high speed internet connection can watch the 大象传媒鈥檚 news reports in broadband quality.

Until now this has only been possible for users in the UK - we鈥檝e been restricted from providing the same level of service internationally by the cost of serving broadband quality video. We did not want the 大象传媒鈥檚 UK licence fee payers meeting this cost and in effect subsidising the service for people outside the UK.

Now, with the help of our partners in 大象传媒 World, the 大象传媒鈥檚 commercially funded international TV news channel, we are making our broadband video news service available internationally. 大象传媒 World is funded by advertising and subscription revenue and the cost of the improved video service will be met by advertising around the broadband news clips.

So if you are viewing video from outside the UK you may see a short commercial before your clip plays. If you want to watch clips ad-free, you can still choose to keep the same narrowband video service we have offered you internationally up to now.

If you click on a video link and you are outside the UK you will see a 鈥渕edia selector鈥� pop-up window with boxes allowing you to choose Windows or Real media, narrowband or high quality video. You can use the preferences link on the News Player to change your choices at any time.

If you have chosen broadband video, the News Player will launch and on some occasions a short commercial will play before the clip you've chosen. Adverts will not appear alongside news clips when it would be insensitive for them to do so.

We hope that for most users a short commercial will be a worthwhile trade-off in order to be able to watch some of the best TV correspondents in the business reporting from around the world, in high quality.

For the first time on the website we will also provide a regularly updated video summary of international news from our colleagues in the newsroom of 大象传媒 World television. You鈥檒l see a link to it on the front of the international edition of the site.

A decade ago watching video online was the preserve of a small, dedicated and patient group of internet pioneers. Today millions use the web daily to watch and listen to all kinds of audio and video content. Traffic to audio and video on this website has continued to grow as more people switch to broadband.

We want to make sure we can continue to provide all our users around the world with top quality video news, and making these changes will allow us to do that.

I hope that if you are outside the UK you will appreciate the improved quality of our news video. Give it a try and if you do have comments or questions, I鈥檇 like to hear them.

Crisis is a word much loved by journalists but has it become so overused that it has lost its meaning?

It's been widely employed in the past couple of weeks in relation to the floods and relations with Russia, for instance. So I looked it up in the dictionary to remind myself what it means in the world outside of journalism. Of the several meanings given, this one is the nearest to sense in which journalists use it...

'a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change'

It seems to me that many journalists have lost sight of the last part about 'leading to a decisive change'.

And before I'm accused of being holier than thou, I confess that The World Tonight has not been immune from doing this - last week we described the diplomatic dispute between London and Moscow as a 'crisis' and I winced. In my feedback to the output editor (we dissect the programme after each edition to decide what worked, what didn't and why) I said it didn't constitute a crisis in my view because it is too early to say if there will be permanent damage.

Mind you, at least we didn't compare the dispute to the Cold War, which many of our colleagues in the press have done, and which led the Russia expert, Robert Service, to go on the Today programme and that - and I paraphrase - 'I knew the Cold War and this ain't no Cold War'.

When it comes to the floods, the areas affected will return to normal eventually when the waters recede, although it may have a more permanent impact on the lives of some of the people who have had their homes flooded and don't have insurance. So how much should we talk of a crisis?

One of the values 大象传媒 journalism puts great emphasis on trying to live up to is accuracy. On top of that, language is the most basic of tools for a journalist. So using it accurately is essential. Though dramatic words help make our stories stand out, we have to guard very carefully against being tempted into hyperbole.

Time magazine: A report on the recent scandals affecting broadcasting in the UK ()

The Telegraph: A preview of the 大象传媒's on-demand iPlayer service, which is due to launch tomorrow. ()

For the past year, the 大象传媒 has been trialling video podcasts - or vodcasts as they've become known. You may have downloaded - and hopefully enjoyed - like , and the .

As planned, that trial finishes at the end of July, and those services will disappear while the 大象传媒 assesses the project. Some may come back later in the year while others may not. We need to be sure that products offer real value for the audience before we launch them back onto the market.

The trial itself has been an interesting process and I think the teams behind the vodcasts have learned a great deal from it. Some offerings have really taken off. Some have been slower to gain a following, although generally, we've had a good response from the audience.

If you used the services, thanks. We hope you enjoyed them and found them useful.

The Guardian: A sketch on the appearence of 大象传媒 executives in front of a select committee. ()

The Telegraph: Reports that all 大象传媒 staff will be required to take "a new training programme to teach honesty to 大象传媒 staff". ()

Daily Mail: "大象传媒 bosses have been accused of wasting licence-fee money on teaching their staff not to lie." ()

It was a terrific clash - but not the intended clash of aspirant presidents tussling to give frank answers to the people鈥檚 questions in the people鈥檚 circus. It was, instead, a clash between two media cultures; old-style 'big journalism' and new-style 'citizen media'. On this showing, 'big journalism' is safe.

There's been a long scrap between the American networks and US social networking sites over the role of each in democracy there - and not just in this campaign. Four years ago, webmeister Joe Trippi persuaded the Democrat contender Howard Dean to focus his campaign online; the Dean campaign blogged, networked and raised funds online.

Trippi was so excited, he an account called 'The Revolution will not be Televised; Democracy, the Internet and the Overthrow of Everything'. It wasn't. Dean never even made the presidential slate and Bush won for the Republicans.

This time round, social networking has moved on and YouTube has entered the stage, along with zealots advocating the role of 鈥榗itizen media鈥� in helping America choose the occupant of the most powerful office on earth.

Uber-zealot Jeff Jarvis 鈥� who blogs here at - was one of those behind a website called 鈥樷�� 鈥� its aim, to bring video sharing into the democratic process. Fine 鈥� except that behind it is the unwritten value system that ascribes the highest worth to so-called 鈥樷�� - named after Virginia Senator George Allen鈥檚 apparently racist comment in an unguarded moment. The relationship between media and democracy has got to be more than catching out the unguarded or unprincipled.

To fuse 鈥榖ig鈥� and 鈥榗itizen鈥� media, CNN came up with a simple proposition. It invited voters to submit their questions for the presidential candidates via .

The network then selected questions, flew some of the questioners to be at the debate in person and in a two-hour show, anchor Anderson Cooper linked their questions to the candidates 鈥� last night it was the Democrat candidates, on 17 September it will be the Republican candidates. There was also the battle of the videos 鈥� on the 鈥榓nything you can do鈥� principle鈥�, live blogging on after . CNN even offered viewers the chance to be their .

Citizen media鈥檚 advocates, like Jeff Jarvis, had :

鈥淭he YouTube debates could fundamentally change the dynamics of politics in America, giving a voice to the people, letting us be heard by the powerful and the public, enabling us to coalesce around our interests and needs, and even teaching reporters who are supposed to ask questions in our stead how they should really do it.鈥�

Too high. In the event, nothing new was revealed and a snowman was the star. No candidate was especially tested 鈥� indeed, they all seemed to find their key task (don鈥檛 get out, don鈥檛 give hostages to fortune) substantially easier than with a format such as 鈥楳eet the Press鈥� 鈥� or even the traditional anchor interview. As far as I could tell, the dynamics remained unchanged.

Contrast Jeff Jarvis鈥檚 after the event with his hopes before it 鈥� he and others blamed the format, blamed the anchor 鈥� even blamed the system for producing too many candidates.

He misses the point. 鈥楤ig media鈥檚鈥� monopoly of communication in the democratic process is over. Good. But hopes for 鈥榗itizen media鈥� need to be realistic; as does any assessment of the enduring merits of 鈥榖ig media鈥� 鈥� like its ability to pose and press the really tough questions; like its persistence in coming back to the unanswered questions; like its ability to field ego against ego, personality against personality 鈥� not the most attractive aspect of 鈥榖ig media鈥�, but its most necessary given the politics that we have.

Maybe there is a way of fusing 鈥榖ig鈥� and 鈥榗itizen鈥�, 鈥榦ld鈥� and 鈥榥ew鈥�, but this wasn鈥檛 it.

We are pretty used to covering floods, by and large. There are always one or two a year and there鈥檚 a pretty standard response in terms of newsgathering. Get there, get the pictures, hear the stories and see the clean-up.

Not this year. These are the worst floods any of us have seen in Britain and the challenge to report them has been huge.

We had a of course when , and had unprecedented amounts of water dumped on them in a few short hours.

News 24 had hours and hours of live coverage, 大象传媒 One had extended bulletins and a special programme devoted to the disaster that had devastated thousands of homes.

Now we鈥檙e at it again but with different place names popping up on screen - Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Abingdon.

The principal difficulty with these kinds of stories is knowing precisely where the problems are going to be.

We knew there would be a huge amount of rain and the forecasters were very accurate about the general area it would fall. But no-one had predicted the M5 would be under water, that water treatment works would become submerged or that electricity supplies would be threatened.

The old reporter鈥檚 clich茅 about the first light of dawn revealing the full extent of the disaster was apt as always.

Like other broadcasters, we generally have fewer resources to deploy at weekends because generally we don鈥檛 need them. But this weekend we had some contingency plans which swiftly came into action.

Getting the first pictures is always a race and as usual viewers sent in hundreds of images and moving picture captured on their mobile phones while our own camera crews struggled to get to the various locations.

Even so, we didn鈥檛 have a real idea of the scale until our helicopter arrived and started beaming pictures of a flooded landscape back into Television Centre.

We put our West of England correspondent Jon Kay on board at one point and he vividly described the scene below him, the sense of shock at the awesome power of nature clearly discernable in his voice.

It鈥檚 true television news seems almost to have been invented for covering extreme weather. The pictures are often dramatic and keep even the most disinterested glued to the screen - my youngest daughter for one.

But in our enthusiasm to cover the story and tell our audiences what has happened to these communities, we should never forget the great deal of human suffering - and sometimes tragedy - which accompanies them.

That鈥檚 the real challenge - to go beyond splashing about in waders and finding how people鈥檚 lives have been affected by the worst floods in a generation.

Daily Mail: Reports that the 大象传媒 has been forced to abandon plans for a documentary about a mentally impaired young mother. ()

The Independent: A columnist comments on the reporting of the cash-for-honours allegations, with comments on the 大象传媒. ()

On this week's Newswatch, the programme which discusses viewers' complaints about 大象传媒 TV News, Adrian Van-Klareven, deputy director of News, talks about the need to reassure audiences following a series of editorial misrepresentations.

You can watch the programme by clicking here

India is probably the most competitive television news market in the world. There are at least 20 news channels, about half broadcasting in English and half in Hindi. There are channels specialising in business, channels specialising in headlines, and channels which go for entertainment stories.

And then there's 大象传媒 World.

We've been broadcasting in India longer than nearly all of them and at one stage we used to produce output specifically targeted at the sub-continent. Question Time India; HardTalk India; Wheels (a motoring programme), even a version of University Challenge featuring Indian students.

But in such a competitive market, you need to be clear about what you stand for, what your strengths are. We know that ours is international news made relevant to South Asian audiences. Which is why on Monday (at 9.30pm IST/10pm PST), we're launching a new edition of our flagship programme, World News Today, specifically targeted at viewers in India and Pakistan and other countries in south Asia where we know we have a loyal following.

The programme will be presented by Nik Gowing, who is very well-known to 大象传媒 World viewers and who has been reporting from Asia throughout his years on the channel. He makes it his business to have first-hand knowledge of the stories he's reporting from, and hops on to aeroplanes the way most of us hop on to a bus or a train. So he's just back from his latest trip to India to promote the new programme and he'll be there again in a few weeks to report on the 60th anniversary celebrations.

His new programme will report the world to South Asia and south Asia to the world - how does the extraordinary economic success of India impact upon western nations? How does America's support for President Musharraf impact upon his popularity in Pakistan? What do British Indians feel about the performance of the India cricket team during the tour of England? These are the sorts of areas which come under our remit, and we're confident we can provide audiences in South Asia with a depth and breadth of coverage that no other broadcaster can match.

We'd love to know whether you agree, and what suggestions you have for the kind of coverage we should be offering viewers in the region. It's an exciting few days for us...

Daily Mail: Reports that the 大象传媒 has had to apologise for a Newsnight survey which suggested that most of the UK's leading businesses were against Scottish independence although no poll was ever formally conducted. ()

The Independent: Five Live presenter Victoria Derbyshire on the station's role in connecting with audiences that the rest of the 大象传媒 fail to reach. ()

STORYFix is ending. It was part of a ("vodcasting") trial run by the 大象传媒. That trial finishes at the end of this month, and so does STORYFix.

There won't be a "best of" DVD. Neither will there be a Christmas special.

As they say in the media, the team will be moving on to other projects, having learned a lot from the project. Thanks for subscribing and thanks for e-mailing in.

UPDATE, MON 07:30 PM: Thanks for all your comments - I've responded to some of them here.

The Economist: Article criticising the 大象传媒 Russian service's coverage of the Litvinenko story for being too cautious. ()

The Independent: Former 大象传媒 director general Greg Dyke on the recent problems at the 大象传媒. ()

All papers: 大象传媒 announces a suspension of all competitions, an investigation into programmes accused of faking phone-ins and all staff are to attend an integrity course, following Mark Thompson's meeting with the 大象传媒 Trust. ()

The Times: As Mark Thompson meets the 大象传媒 Trust today, he is expected to suggest tighter quality controls following recent editorial errors. ()

Six weeks ago I wrote in this blog that Russia is back - newly assertive because of the high prices it now gets for its oil and gas exports. Today, we have heard Russia for Britain's expulsion of four of Moscow's diplomats because Russia has not extradited one of its citizens suspected of murdering an opponent of President Putin, Alexander Litvinenko, in London.

On The World Tonight, we have been trying to answer the question - will the Gordon Brown premiership see a new direction in foreign policy? There has been a lot of speculation in the media that the new faces in the Foreign Office - including David Miliband and the former deputy secretary general of the UN, Mark Malloch Brown who fell out with Washington when he was at the world body 鈥� indicate that Mr Brown would seek to distance himself from the Bush administration and recalibrate the foreign policy of the Blair years.

So far the signs are that there will not be a dramatic change, which given the fact that the new prime minister was a central part of the Blair government and Mr Miliband and Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, were also ministers under Mr Blair, this is not surprising.

On last Friday's programme (listen here) we asked where relations with Washington and Moscow are headed.

We spoke to of the Council on Foreign Relations, the man who hosted Douglas Alexander's that led many journalists to argue Mr Brown was distancing himself from Mr Bush. From an American perspective, Mr Sperling, told us there was nothing in the speech that Mr Blair would not have said - which seemed to answer that one.

And given that Gordon Brown is known to be an admirer of the United States and its economic and intellectual success, it was always unlikely he would make a significant break with his predecessor even if he did believe Britain should withdraw its troops from Iraq soon - and so far he has not given any indication that he is changing the policy of staying as long as is needed by the Iraqi government.

The row with Russia is the first real foreign policy test of the Brown government and it has decided to respond in a traditional manner by expelling diplomats to express disapproval of Moscow's policies. And last Friday, our Moscow correspondent, Rupert Wingfield Hayes predicted yesterday's expulsions and analysed Russian policy towards the UK - the Russians regard the British refusal to accept that their constitution will not allow extradition of Russian citizens (and Russia is not unique in taking this approach to extradition) as political game playing.

We then spoke to the former Labour foreign secretary, Lord Owen and the former European Commissioner for external relations, Lord Patten, to get their assessment of the Brown foreign policy. They agreed that it is too early to say whether there will be a change in policy towards Washington, but they disagreed on what approach London should take to Moscow.

Lord Owen said the new government should talk to the Russians before taking action as there are other interests at stake - such as the need to keep Moscow on side to help Britain and the West over persuading Iran not to develop a nuclear weapons programme and not block the American and British plan to give Kosovo independence from Serbia against Serbian wishes, something Russia opposes. Lord Patten said the West has been pusillanimous in its relations with Russia and Russia needs Western investment in their oil and gas industry so Europe should deal collectively and more assertively with Russia.

On last night's programme (listen here) Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Putin accused the Foreign Office of playing politics and said Russia would respond and we're yet to see exactly what Moscow has in mind.

Clearly this story still has a little way to run, but one thing is already apparent - those predictions that the arrival of a new government would see a different foreign policy have yet to be borne out.

Daily Telegraph: "The independent production company at the centre of the row over misleading television footage of the Queen today issued a grovelling apology to the 大象传媒." ()

The Times: Columnist Libby Purves blames the 大象传媒's current culture, created by the enforced outsourcing of much of its production, for the recent mistakes made at the corporation. ()

There is something about the media hyping of the World Service in the wake of Alan Johnston's release that makes me slightly uncomfortable.

We in the World Service, and more precisely World Service News, have been the centre of attention lately. Alan made sure of that. He said "we sustained him". And judging by the clarity of his analysis post-release, he's come out fully briefed on world affairs.

We do news well here at the World Service - those who listen vouch for it and those who don't still think we're "a good thing".

We've finessed impartiality down to a fine art. The Independent's Robert Hanks had a last Monday: "For most of its history," he wrote, "the WS has been engaged in a kind of propaganda... the softest form of propaganda imaginable. It boosts Britain by refusing to boost Britain." And that's spot on. We do not boost, we do not label, we do not "belong" and we certainly do not take sides. We pursue "neutrality" with a vengeance. So much so that it's the only thing we're not neutral about - I'm never sure whether our audiences agree though.

We broadcast to 37.6 million people in English alone, across a huge array of economic, ethnic and racial divides, political and religious convictions. We don't take anything for granted, not even that our listeners understand us at face value. It helps to be precise with words and meticulous when it comes to analysis. Our listeners are great texters and e-mailers, whether they catch us on a crackling short wave transmitter or digitally, on the net, on FM partner stations or on 648 kHz here in the UK. They love to engage and give their views. They can be picky, at times pedantic. What unites them all is a passion for, and a curiosity about, the world.

, the editor of World Have Your Say, our global phone-in programme that featured prominently on Alan's listening schedule, spoke of a typical World Service listeners' on-air exchange: an Indian man, sailing from India to China, listening on his computer, debates with a Somali taxi driver in Moscow the merits of our Gaza coverage. Now how's that for a global audience?

Of course I am proud and honoured that our programmes facilitate the "global conversation", and that they've been such a lifeline to Alan, and before him to Brian Keenan, Terry Waite and John McCarthy, and before them to Mikhail Gorbachev. And of course I am pleased to read in the British press that we are "the best known and most respected voice in British broadcasting". I like to think that our 1.3 million listeners in the UK are not just insomniacs who listen when Radio 4 is off air, but people who make a clear choice to listen to us because they like the way we do news.

But my point here is not to revel in our re-energised media profile. I wonder what the World Service means to British consumers of news beyond a symbolic jewel in the crown. And how many of you reading this blog in the UK take advantage of this resource that is yours, this vibrant, modern, 24/7 news service under your very noses of which someone once said that it "wields more influence than the United Nations"? Just curious....

On this week's Newswatch, the programme which discusses viewers' complaints about 大象传媒 News, Deputy UK News Editor James Buchanan responds to claims that the flooding in Hull was largely overlooked, whilst the coverage focused on Sheffield instead. You can watch the programme by clicking here.

On Radio 4's Feedback this week, the editor of the Today programme, Ceri Thomas, discusses why so much time was devoted to Alistair Campbell鈥檚 diaries, despite the fact that interviewer John Humphrys hadn鈥檛 been given the chance to read them beforehand. You can listen to it here.

The Times: Columnist Carol Sarler on the row over the documentary about the Queen, and why in a business the size of the 大象传媒 it's impossible for one person to be held responsible. ()

The Independent: Interview with David Dimbleby on what the 大象传媒 means to him. ()

The Guardian: Leader article praising Ceefax. ()

Western Mail: 大象传媒 News has been criticised by the Audience Council for Wales for its poor coverage of the Welsh assembly. ()

Press Gazette: Jon Williams, the 大象传媒鈥檚 world news editor has promised to rethink the way that the kidnappings and murders of foreign journalists are covered by the corporation. ()

Mail on Sunday: Row over footage used by Newsnight in a film about Gordon Brown. ()

Scotland on Sunday: Reports that Mark Thompson wrote to 大象传媒 staff telling them that the corporation has to put 鈥渋ts house in order鈥�. ()

It has of course been a very difficult and embarrassing week for all of us at the 大象传媒. It didn鈥檛 start well with Ofcom fining the corporation 拢50,000 over an edition of Blue Peter. If that wasn鈥檛 bad enough it was followed with a misleading edit of Her Majesty the Queen in a presentation to journalists.

Maintaining standards of honesty, accuracy and fairness throw up various dilemmas which programme editors have to grapple with on a daily basis. For example we sometimes get politicians making complaints about an interview or a particular film. We had a recent correspondence from the Treasury about an item made by the independent film maker Jamie Campbell which threw up precisely these kind of issues, although in this instance the film didn鈥檛 breach any of the 大象传媒鈥檚 producer guidelines.

On the day before Gordon Brown took over as prime minister we broadcast Jamie鈥檚 film about his attempts to get an interview with the then chancellor. They were unhappy with the film in general but directed their complaint at how the film portrayed a Treasury press officer claiming the chronology of two events were out of sequence and as such misrepresented the events. However unlike the incident with the footage of the Queen, whichever order the events had been shown the meaning would remain the same. Check out the film for yourself here.

The sequences to look out for are the incident where the then chancellor's car arrives when the press officer and Jamie are talking and the incident at the CBI. Chronologically the CBI event happened first. Watch for yourself and let me know if you think the meaning is remotely affected by the order.

In retrospect, yesterday proved to be what 大象传媒 managers might euphemistically describe as an "interesting and challenging" day to experiment with a real-time blog live from the News 24 gallery. There were - as usual - many breaking news stories to deal with, but what was genuinely unexpected was the way the drama unfolded about the 大象传媒 itself and that documentary about the Queen. I hope we made sense of it on News 24 and across 大象传媒 News.

To answer at least some of the questions and points raised yesterday:

Why lead at 12 on the Queen story?
The 大象传媒 apologising to the Queen was clearly a major news item - as today's newspapers seem to demonstrate.

What other stories have been "spun"?
We all sincerely hope that this unfortunate episode was not symptomatic.

Could we offer a "newsier" service while Breakfast is on 大象传媒 One?
Financially difficult - particularly at present. Although News 24 does - and will - "break away" from Breakfast early when there is major breaking news.

Does popularity of stories on 大象传媒 website influence decision-making?
Up to a point. Many stories prove very popular online, but wouldn't make it into the News 24 headlines (today's example might be "Grumpy old people can鈥檛 help it"). But seeing - in real time - what is driving interest online can help in the choice of stories we chase on News 24.

How many people are in the News 24 gallery?
Generally, seven: editor, studio producer, director/vision mixer (in traditional galleries, the director and vision mixer are two separate people), sound director, communications director (lining up "outside source" contributions), caption writer, autocue operator. Plus our graphics team (of two) sit at the end of the gallery.

Could posts be displayed with the most recent at the top?
I think so, but this would be beyond my technical capabilities - which are akin to those of a caterpillar.

Are Reeta and Shami Chakrabarti related?
No.

Most fraught atmosphere in the gallery?
Big pre-planned, set-piece events - particularly when we're simulcasting a special programme on 大象传媒 One - generally add to the tension.

"Unlikely" testing stories?
Often ones involving the 大象传媒!

Do we liaise with Five Live over chasing stories and guests?
Yes - the Five Live teams sit only yards away from ours, but I'm sure we could do more.

Why the interest in the drugs arrests in Ghana?
Two 16-year-old British girls arrested on drugs charges is not an everyday occurrence - their age made it a more compelling story.

Why was HM Revenue and Customs representative captioned "Customs and Excise" (the name changed some time ago)?
Sorry - it was a mistake made in haste.

How are our on-air maps generated?
We use software called "Curious", which - I'm told - works a bit like Google Earth. And each time we make a new map, we add it to our library.

What went wrong at 10.49?
Ah. Glad it wasn't obvious.

Did you pay for a special "ghost-blogger"?
No, though I didn't type my posts myself - I wouldn鈥檛 have been able to type so fast! A fantastic guy, who is one of our blog moderators, sat next to me and made sense of my random rantings.

Did blogging detract from the actual output?
Hope not, but not for me to judge.

Can a real time blog be done daily?
NO ! It certainly added to the pressure in what is already a 鈥mm鈥ively environment, but it was also oddly invigorating. If the powers-that-be approve, and there is demand for it, we may do it again sometime - perhaps with less of the "watch what's going to happen NOW" and more on how we reach the decisions made about the output. Perhaps you could suggest how it could be done better - if at all - in future?

A depressing and ill-informed torrent of newsprint has appeared since the news about 大象传媒 One's new bulletin at 8pm which my colleague Craig Oliver explained in his recent entry.

In case you hadn't seen it - our critics say we are, surprise surprise, dumbing down. How original.

I don't normally blog in TV news areas - leaving my colleagues to do this - but I thought I'd point out a few basic points to the open-minded.

Firstly, this is not happening at the expense of existing output, much of which is highly detailed, analytical and "highbrow". It's an extra which, shock horror, the audience told us they would like us to do and to which we, being public service broadcasters, should be obliged to listen.

If we ask everyone to pay the licence fee to support 大象传媒 News, then 大象传媒 News should serve all audiences from the very young to the very old. But we don't always do that, as Craig explained in his original piece. So this is about an offering aimed at those who don't connect with our existing output - but news matters to them and they want to know - but they don't want us to spend all day telling them with lots of graphs and professors.

It's not instead of anything: we wouldn't expect lovers of the Ten, Today or Newsnight to set their hard disc recorders to 8pm to catch Natasha's news minute - but a difference audience will. Job done.

By the way, far from being a dumb exercise, as any good sub-editor will tell you, writing the news of the day in a 60 second pr茅cis is a far greater journalistic skill than writing it in 60 minutes.

My background has been providing exactly this type of service for radio - both 大象传媒 and commercial - for more than 20 years. You have to really know your stories, understand why they are important and how they can be connected and relevant to an audience that might otherwise want to channel hop or just make a cuppa. It's a tough ask and I wish my TV colleagues the very best of luck.

The truth is that different audiences like the news presented to them in different ways. There is no "one size fits all" - nor in the modern world is there a definition of "news" - to some people it might include entertainment news and sport and to others it never, ever will. That's fine - it's all about choice nowadays: your choice.

The 大象传媒 has an amazing range of news services. To be fair, the majority are canted towards a broadsheet and upmarket audience - we don't want to mess about with them - but why shouldn't the rest of the audience have a chance to be served as they want to be served by 大象传媒 News? If we failed to listen we would be guilty of extreme arrogance and the greatest sin for a public service broadcaster: not caring about or listening to all your audience.

All papers: 大象传媒 apologises to the Queen over promotional clips apparently showing her angry with photographer Annie Liebovitz. ()

Times: Andrew Marr told to stop writing a column for the Daily Telegraph. ()

Express: Frederick Forsyth claims 大象传媒 News is "dominated by a claque of hard-Left, anti-British republicans". ()

So, just an hour to go until we start the liveblog from the News 24 gallery - as discussed here yesterday.

In response to yesterday's post, a reader asked for an outline of my day before and after I'm on air. Are you sure, Kenneth?

I get to the newsroom at 06:30; our first editorial meeting with the News 24 team is at 07:15 - where we talk through what we're expecting from the day's news agenda, and how we'll cover the stories, which angles to pursue, which guests to chase; another meeting (this IS the 大象传媒, after all) at 08:00 - where we talk logistics with our newsgathering colleagues and the One O'Clock News team: this essentially agrees where to send camera crews, live trucks and correspondents.

Then grab a coffee and into the gallery for 08:20, and by 08:30, we're away - and that's where I am until 13:00. Then a debrief, a sarnie and it鈥檚 planning for the next day...

Some of the stories I'm expecting to make the headlines today: a "friendly fire" inquest into the deaths of two British soldiers in Iraq; later, we should get the interim report into the US troop "surge" in Iraq; we have some compelling material on the issue of domestic violence; and we'll see the Queen visiting the Tyne Cot Cemetery to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of WW1 Battle of Passchendaele. But I can guarantee some news that is entirely unplanned.

See you at 10:00.

UPDATE 10:00 - here we go!

It's Ten O'Clock. New top story to lead on - inquests. But what we're most interested in is the Queen throwing a strop on camera (ahem).

PS: You can watch News 24 online by clicking here - feel free to ask any questions that come to you...

10:04 - Just breaking some news from the Press Association. Sixteen-year-old girls from London found with 拢300,000 worth of cocaine in Ghana..

10:05 - There's an interesting debate going on... 大象传媒 news and 大象传媒 programmes don't always point in the same direction. Today, there's some disquiet in parts of the 大象传媒 about using the pics from the Queen programme at this point - but news is using them.

10:07 - The story about delaying inquests for UK troops killed abroad is powerful in so many respects. It's a political story - but it's also very personal. And the man we talking to now, whose son was killed in Iraq, and had to wait three years for the inquest, illustrates that.

10:09 - Our defence correspondent Paul Wood has just nipped into the gallery to suggest a slight change to our script on this story, to make it clearer.

10:12 - Within a few minutes of hearing the Ghana story, we've got a map to illustrate it. But it's one we've got on our system, we didn't have to make it fresh.

10:16 - My presenters (Simon and Kate) are teasing me about this blog - it's going around and around in ever-decreasing circles. Apparently I'm in control.

10:18 - Just working out what to do on the arrests of the 16-year-olds in Ghana. we've got a corr in Accra who will hopefully be able to do a report for us soon.

10:22 - On the case of the - the sacred TB-ridden cow - our religious affairs corr is live. We're dropping the pre-recorded report just to go live to Robert.

10:23 - Just had a text from Declan Curry telling me he's keeping up with the blog on a train. The pressure is now on...

10:24 - Quick work from the director as an unexpected sound source popped up in the studio. It sounded like cartoons.. didn't go out on air, I should say...

10:27 - Foreign Office is offering assistance to the girls arrested in Ghana. The statement says 'next of kin have been informed' - has echoes of what the F.O. says after military fatalities...

10:29: There鈥檚 a massive difference between continuous news and a bulletin, in terms of how you manage it. In our situation, we could not run a live studio and gallery with the level of stress and tension that is the norm during a half-hour bulletin. If we operated at that level we would implode! When there is frantic breaking news, we're at that level. But generally we have to keep people as calm as possible - if we were at each others throats continuously, we might not make it to lunchtime!

10:30 - We're trailing ahead to a special day of coverage we've planned for tomorrow - tagged 'After the Floods'. We're back in most of the areas worst affected by the flooding, trying to offering practical advice to those affected. Promises to be an interesting day.

10:34 - We're about to dip into the House of Commons, because Alistair Darling is taking Treasury questions for the first time... Not that we're expecting any great news from it, but it's an interesting moment in politics.

10:39 - We're now running some previously researched material on domestic violence - we think it's very powerful.

10:41 - We've a very enthusiastic and tight-knit team of journalists on News 24. They work very well together. One of the producers has been having a nightmare getting all the elements of her piece for today together... and she's been cheered up by other members of the team, who have been singing to her in the newsroom.

10:45 - Interesting decision to be made - where to place the breaking story from Ghana. It's new, it's unexpected, and interesting at various levels - but covering it is very very difficult. All we can currently offer is a telephone piece with our reporter there, and our correspondent in vision at the Foreign Office. The story is what we call 'picture challenged' - but it's so interesting that we intend to lead on it at 11. helped us make our minds up.

10:49 - Oops! You didn't notice that did you? Good.

10:50 - At 11:00, the presenters, directors and studio producers change shift, and a new team comes in. Muggins here, however, goes nowhere until lunchtime...

10:53 - A very late change to the running order there, to provide an update on the Ghana story. Done with just a moment's warning. It shows the value of the N24 presenters - fantastically flexible and quick thinking, and generally good humoured!

10:58 - A comment - from David - asks where I sit in relation to the presenters. Physically, I'm about 20m from them - they're behind me over my right shoulder. They are, however, far closer electronically. They hear my voice whenever I need them too, and I can see them continuously on gallery monitors.

11:00 - A very quick debrief with the presenters - back in a minute...

11:07 - Our man in Ghana has finally made contact with us... seven minutes after we wanted him. Communications problems with far-flung reporters are an occupational hazard.

11:12 - First pics from inside the Red Mosque have popped up. Our reporter is going in as well. But the first shots available to us are from Pakistan TV. Matthew (presenter) is ad-libbing this - ie, without a safety net - giving lots of description and background. Works well.

11:15 - As I mentioned, we have no pictures to illustrate the Ghana story. We are getting, from our news library, general shots of Accra and Accra airport.

11:19 - As you may imagine, an awful lot of information that we gather doesn't end up on air. For example, earlier we were checking out an evacuation of a busy railway station, after a suspect package was found. It turned out to be simply an unattended bag, and given the level of tension following the recent attempted bombings, the station was evacuated. These incidents occur almost daily and are seldom reported.

11:22 - Andy - luck!

11:25 - We run what we call 'floats' to illustrate live interviews and reports. So our reporter at Maidstone Crown Court talked about the arrival of Chris Langham (the actor) as we showed the footage. She described the events as we ran the pictures. Obvious really, but harder to line up than you'd imagine.

11:31 - I'm talking to our reporter at the Foreign Office, but i can't see her - i could hear her, she could hear me, but we're looking at nothing but bars. Ah, there she is... She'll be on air in a moment..

11:34 - Unfortunately, reporting NATO casualties in Afghanistan or UK/US casualties is a depressingly regular occurence.

11:36 - We can link up live to our correspondents all around the world - but try to do a two-way with our political correspondent at the Foreign Office and the picture keeps breaking up. Don't you just love technology.

11:37 - Just had to pull out of the live two-way because of the poor quality of the feed. The team down there will move position and hopefully things will be OK by 12...

11:39 - Just had a note sent to me by one of our correspondents, who was told recently by the Queen that she and Prince Philip watch News 24. Nice to know! Just sending the note to the presenters...

11:41 - Just slipping out of the gallery for a moment, back soon,.

11:46 - I'm back...

11:48 - A member of the team has just said to me that a lot of emails and texts are coming in from viewers who feel that our domestic violence material (which I mentioned previously) isn't reflecting the number of men who suffer from this problem. We're going to use some of those messages to try to address their concerns.

11:50 - There's a story about a plane that's been diverted due to security concerns. Deciding which of these alerts are a scare, and which are serious, is one of the trickiest parts of the job.

11:56 - The Press Association puts out an apology from the 大象传媒 to the Queen, over that documentary. We've known for 30 minutes or so that an apology was imminent, but we're only able to report it now.

11:57 - The apology will lead the bulletin at 12.

12:04 - Just recorded some shots from Ghanaian TV (Re the drugs story). Will be interesting to see what it shows...

12:05 - Hmmm. Not sure we can use those... the hunt goes on.

12:07 - The inquest that I was once hoping to lead on at 12 - it now doesn't start until 12:30...

12:10 - Trying to illustrate the story of Formula 1 team McLaren being fined. There was a moment of amusement in the gallery when the only picture we could find, at first, was of Steve McLaren (England manager). We chose not to use that.

12:12 - Andrew: Thanks for the kind words! But not sure my heart could stand it.

12:13 - An occupational hazard at the 大象传媒 - various outlets are competing to get the correspondent du jour on air.

12:14 - Just starting to get a little stressed... not sure if you can tell!

12:16 - Just trying something a little risky - see if you can spot it!

12:17 - The ability of our presenters to remain calm when all hell is breaking loose in the gallery never ceases to amaze me.

12:20 - An interesting, but hugely libellous comment in my ear from one of the directors. It's a good thing there's no live stream from here..

12:22 - We've had to chase around two major breaking stories this morning - as well as the usual news agency flashes/alerts. No busier than usual, but now we're having to turn our attention to the story we've been expecting all morning - the friendly fire inquest.

12:23 - Nipping out of the gallery again... back in a moment.

12:31 - I'm back.

12:32 - Luckily, the viewers won't have been able to see one of our presenters nudging the other to start talking there..

12:34 - Just jiggling the order around to allow our reporter at the friendly fire inquest to gather some more information...

12:37 - Obviously, by the way - when I said at the very start that the Queen was having a strop, I was mistaken! Ahem. .

12:46 - Trying to line up some guests on the Queen story. Might require some last minute juggling if they don't come through...

12:52 - Sorry for the delay - My computer was just doing something that both confused and worried me. I think it's over.

12:54 - Coming up to One O'Clock - the end of my four and a half hour stint in the gallery. Unless we're rolling with major breaking news, we simulcast the 大象传媒 One O'Clock News. We can break out of that when we need to (hope that answers your question williamt) - but, at the moment, we're not intending to today.

12:58 - As we go into the weather, and hopefully, the One O'Clock News, thanks for all your comments - it's been a fascinating experience for me. We should do it again sometime!?!?!.

13:00 - Over and out.

Mildly apprehensive at something we're trying out for the first time tomorrow - a real-time editor's blog live from the News 24 studio gallery.

So, as well as trying to keep abreast of all the breaking news, getting it on air quickly and accurately, attempting to keep the presenters at least vaguely informed of what might be coming at them next, talking to our correspondents and guests, nagging (should that be "encouraging"?) my hyperactive production team etc etc etc, I will be having a stab at writing a blog at the same time.

If it works, it might give you a fly-on-the-wall insight into how a continuous news channel operates: how and why we reach our decisions on editorial and production issues; the last-minute changes in running orders; which stories merit ditching all other news to 'roll'; how we react when things don't go entirely according to plan (which, since you ask, is rather more often than is good for one's health).

And if the liveblog doesn't work, we'll simply file it under "who the hell came up with THAT daft idea?". Watch this space from 10:00 (UK time) tomorrow morning...

One of the big stories this week has been the verdict in the trial of four people found guilty of attempting to bomb the London transport network on 21st July.

While a trial is running, vast amounts of information comes out in open court. Much of it is not reported at the time because the news agenda moves on and we rarely report every day of a trial over many months. 大象传媒 journalists also beaver away collecting more background and contextual information. Once the trial ends, and reporting restrictions are lifted, the whole story can be told - including some information which may not have been put before the jury.

One of the difficulties we face in telling the story is illustrating events which did not take place in front of cameras. Sometimes we use reconstructions - when actors show us how something might have been done. They're a useful device as long as they're clearly labelled - it is essential the viewer is not led to believe that they are seeing real events.

We did this on our report on the bomb plot (which you can watch for yourself here) - using information that was given in open court that the bomb was made from hydrogen peroxide and chapatti flour. A number of viewers contacted the 大象传媒 to complain about this, one saying they felt it was "more or less a chemistry lesson on how to make a bomb". In our report, we made it clear that this was an exact science, and that the bomb failed because the chemicals were mixed in the wrong concentration. Indeed how the bombs were actually made, and whether they were viable, became a key issue in the trial.

We gave no details about the actual concentrations that were used - indeed, much more detailed information on bomb making is available on the internet. We used clearly labelled reconstruction pictures of a clear liquid being heated and flour being added - illustrating no more than had been said in court and widely reported in the press. We didn't include details of some of the other ingredients that are used to make this mixture into an explosive (again, this information is widely available). The pictures would be of no use to a would be bomb-maker.

Kate Robinson runs the team which made the background packages - she points out that a great deal of consideration went into what information was included.

"We obviously thought long and hard about what aspects of the bomb-making process we would show. All the information we used was already in the public domain and there are many facts which would be needed to make such a bomb that we did not go into - even though we know them. However, as the defence rested on their claim that this was a protest and not a workable bomb, we felt that it was important to show the public that these were truly viable devices. At all times we have taken into our decision making process the advice that was being given by the police at court. What we did would not enable people to make a device."

One final important consideration is that we need to give people enough information to know, in future, what might be suspicious. For example, had more people known about the use of hydrogen peroxide, then the police might have been warned about unusual purchases of large quantities in advance.

You may that 大象传媒 One has commissioned a short news summary at eight PM every evening. It follows a successful pilot that recently ran in the West Midlands for a five week period (I wrote about that here).

We experimented with a number of formats (there'll be a further announcement shortly about which format was picked):

i) 60 seconds of national news presented by Natasha Kaplinsky.
ii) A 90 second mix of national and regional news - presented by Natasha and with a sequence coming from the West Midlands.
iii) A 60 second summary - presented from the West Midlands.

You can watch an example of one of the bulletins by clicking here.

Viewers who saw the summaries will have noticed that although they clearly came from the 大象传媒 News stable, there were some significant differences. They were written in a more "chatty" style, there was a higher instance of domestic news, and entertainment news was regularly included.

So why were we doing this - and why the difference in style?

Audience research revealed that although very strong, 大象传媒 News was losing viewers among the young and what the Americans call "blue collar" workers. We decided to find out why this was happening - and what we could do to stop it. We discovered these groups wanted us to be more informal and to include subjects that weren't in more traditional news output. They told us they were interested in the news - but didn't always feel they need to sit through a half-hour programme.

The 大象传媒 believes it is important to meet their needs - they are licence payers too.

There will be those who claim we are dumbing down - nothing could be further from the truth. 大象传媒 One will continue to carry the One, Six and Ten O'Clock News - all of which will remain unchanged.

Audiences are fracturing and changing as never before - the 大象传媒 wants to make sure it meets its public service responsibilities to everyone.

Financial Times: Reports on a speech made by Mark Thompson in which he attacks commercial rivals for the declining quality of their news and current affairs output, saying that if it weren't for the 大象传媒 some foreign stories would go uncovered. ()

Daily Mail: Columnist Stephen Glover criticises the coverage that Alistair Campbell's recently published diaries received on the 大象传媒. ()

This week we鈥檝e seen what may turn out to be the past and future of Labour politics.

The past came in the form of the publication of Alastair Campbell鈥檚 diaries. This was a launch tightly controlled in the way New Labour perfected in opposition over ten years ago. Campbell made himself available for big interviews on 大象传媒 One with Andrew Marr on Sunday (watch here), and on Radio Four with John Humphrys on Monday (listen here) - but neither of them was allowed to see a copy of the book before they did the interview.

There was no newspaper serialisation of extracts, as there often is with political books 鈥� Campbell said he didn鈥檛 want to cash in by using the papers he鈥檇 so often attacked. The only extracts available were the ones chosen by Campbell himself and published on his own website.

And as even the entire book itself - once you get hold of a copy - is just 鈥渆xtracts鈥� from Campbell鈥檚 diaries, chosen by him for political reasons, rather than a full unexpurgated record of his time as Tony Blair鈥檚 press secretary.

So it could be argued this was the old politics of spin 鈥� tell people what the story is before they have a chance to work it out for themselves, and then tell them only what you want them to hear rather than the full story.

That鈥檚 the past. The future seems to be the style adopted by Gordon Brown鈥檚 government for launching its policies. Already we鈥檝e seen this a few times 鈥� last week John Denham, the man in charge of Higher Education, surprised some journalists by not sending out his advisers to brief ahead of a Commons statement on changes to student grants; on Tuesday, the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, was making a Commons statement, similarly without pre-briefing; and Gordon Brown is due to tell the Commons on Wednesday about his future legislative plans - we can guess at the content, but so far, no briefing.

This is an interesting change. If the government sticks with it, we鈥檒l no longer be waking up to stories saying 鈥渢he prime minister will today announce鈥︹��, followed by an interview with a minister who - after insisting he mustn鈥檛 pre-empt his leader鈥檚 statement to parliament - then proceeds to spell out the key details. Instead, we鈥檒l all have to wait till the PM or minister actually makes his announcement in the Commons.

No bad thing you may say. Certainly that鈥檚 the reaction from my colleagues at 大象传媒 Parliament, who are naturally pleased when government policy is revealed first in the chamber. On the other hand, you may feel you like due warning of what鈥檚 coming up, so you can judge whether to tune in to a government statement on News 24 or Five Live. What鈥檚 your view?

Financial Times: Columnist Philip Stephens argues that the 大象传媒 should concentrate on appealing to its middle class audience instead of going head to head against commercial competitors, trying to do everything for everyone. ()

The Guardian: Article asking whether the 大象传媒 is impartial on climate change, after its coverage of the Live Earth concert. ()

The Times: Reports that the 大象传媒 has been fined 拢50,000 by Ofcom after the results of a Blue Peter phone-in competition were faked. ()

The last few days have without doubt been the very best in my 18 years with the 大象传媒.

It has been an enormous privilege to spend Alan Johnston鈥檚 first few days of freedom at his side. (I was the one with the enormous smile in most of the photos and TV footage last Wednesday!).

The dignity and calm professionalism which Alan has displayed since his release has been astonishing, even to those of us who knew him well and knew what a quiet, determined and selfless man he has always been.

As Alan鈥檚 friend and immediate senior colleague, I felt an enormous responsibility when he was abducted on 12 March in Gaza City.

For the first three weeks or so, I moved to Gaza myself with a couple of close colleagues to lead our operation. We met the Palestinian president, prime minister and a host of other savoury and less savoury characters who we believed might be able to help.

Later, we stood shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian Journalists鈥� Syndicate as their incredibly moving campaign to free Alan took to the streets.

But in the end, we felt forced to leave Gaza because of the threats to us. One grim day, a group of masked and armed men apparently looking for a hostage turned up 20 minutes after one of my colleagues had just left a building in Gaza City. Shortly afterwards, a contact in a western intelligence service gave us chilling and compelling evidence that our every move was being followed by a car full of armed gang members.

So while Alan whiled away the interminable hours in his cell somewhere in Gaza, our efforts had to be focused in from outside. From a base in Jerusalem, we worked closely with British diplomats and other experts sent out from London and stayed in close contact with key colleagues from the 大象传媒 Arabic Service still inside Gaza.

As is common in such situations, there were several approaches to us. Some were outright cranks, others clearly had some contacts with the group holding Alan. Expert advice was to check out every possible approach, however unlikely, as it might just prove the key.

In the end, the Hamas takeover in Gaza 鈥� which no-one could have predicted 鈥� provided a big opening. Now, for the first time, the kidnappers could no longer play off rival powerbases against each other. Hamas immediately placed freeing Alan at the top of its priority list.

We had no advance knowledge of Hamas鈥檚 precise plans to free Alan. But in the final few days, I was able to hold private meetings with senior leaders of the organisation in both Damascus and Gaza and impress upon them forcefully, and in private, our desire for a peaceful resolution.

The fact that they achieved this has about whether Hamas should be rewarded politically. Neither I nor the 大象传媒 will be entering that debate. But to the individuals from all quarters who worked many long days 鈥� and nights 鈥� to achieve this result, Alan, myself and all 大象传媒 colleagues owe a huge and heartfelt vote of thanks.

On this week's Newswatch, the programme which discusses viewers' complaints about 大象传媒 News, Kevin Bakhurst, controller of News 24, defends the coverage of the London and Glasgow terror attacks, including the decision to send reporters from London to Scotland to cover the latter incident.

You can watch the programme by clicking here.

Many thanks to those of you who put our Alan Johnston button on your blogs, websites and web pages. We estimate that it was used at about a thousand places around the web - it was a new and effective tool for highlighting Alan's situation and no doubt helped keep him in the public eye.

But now, as of this morning we're retiring the button from our own blogs, and invite you to do the same. It's simple to do - just remove the code from your page and it will disappear. Alan, now back with his family, . In due course, when he's ready, he'll return to work at the 大象传媒 in London - and so it's time for us to regain a bit of normality.

I will, however, let blogger Tim Ireland of have the final word with this nicely doctored image.

The Independent: Article on the importance of the World Service, both in the UK and abroad. ()

Daily Telegraph: "The 大象传媒 ordered Jonathan Ross to remind viewers of Live Earth that climate change may not have been caused by human activity, as the broadcaster tries to stay neutral on current affairs." ()

The Guardian: Annual chart of the top 100 people in the media, including several people from the 大象传媒. ()

The Guardian: Former hostage Brian Keenan offers his advice to Alan Johnston following his 114 days in captivity. ()

I gave a speech at 's Future of News conference on Wednesday. You can read what I said there below. Let me know what you think...

Read the rest of this entry

You may have seen earlier in the week, calling for more ambition and innovation from the 大象传媒.

It鈥檚 perhaps not surprising that the 大象传媒 Trust鈥檚 research shows that people want fresh ideas 鈥� few would be happy to accept only the familiar year after year. What we in 大象传媒 News have to work out is exactly how that desire applies to the services and programmes we produce. The questions are certainly rather different to thinking about the next Saturday night entertainment format or another drama as fresh as Life on Mars.

Innovation in News can mean many things. Over the last five years we have begun to offer a much broader range of services available wherever and whenever people want them. So whether , on a big screen in a city centre or , we can offer different ways of distributing news. There is the potential to be able to do a lot more in terms of personalisation, by subject or by location. And we can make much more of current affairs content by not simply thinking in terms of particular programmes and commissioned timeslots. The aggregation of our content in different forms will be a crucial part of the future.

There is also technical innovation, enabling us to be live faster and more cheaply in more places. In our recent coverage of the floods in Yorkshire, we have for instance pioneered the use of a VSat dish to send many of the pictures and live coverage. Instead of using a large satellite truck and relatively expensive broadcast satellite space, this simply mounts on top of a normal vehicle and uses a fast broadband connection over satellite to send pictures and sound back to Television Centre. These aren鈥檛 innovations our viewers should even notice in themselves 鈥� but they should mean the reporting we can offer is even more immediate and authentic.

And finally (as one now-departed news format used to say), there is the question of formats. In many ways this is the most difficult. We know that audiences value innovation but reject gimmickry. It is not enough to do something in a different way simply because we can. But when we launch something new and get it right, the impact is huge. Radio Five Live has been a long-term success through consciously achieving a sound different from Radio 4. Television presentation has been transformed 鈥� if you get a chance, just look at a programme from 15 or 20 years ago and see how formal it feels. Our uses of studios, live location reporting and interactivity have all gone through a revolution. There is the potential to do something similar again over the next few years as long as we use the tools in a way which benefits the journalism and doesn鈥檛 get in the way.

We see innovation as key to keeping existing audiences and reaching new ones. New services and new approaches will be vital and that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e keen to hear thoughts about what we should be doing. But even more vital will be the editorial ambition which drives what we do every day. The thinking about how to select, treat and develop a story is in the end what most determines our success. The lessons all broadcasters have learned is that people will try an innovation once simply because it is new. However, they will only keep coming back to it if it is both simple to use and the content meets their needs.

We know that younger audiences are turning away from TV news - that's not new. But makes some bold suggestions about how we might halt this trend, as well as analysing the reasons behind it.

One of those is doing away with impartiality rules "for all but key public service broadcasters". The idea here, is that will make for more opinion-led, partial bulletins everywhere on the scale from to the to the and leftwards.

So impartiality puts young audiences off?

I think that's tosh.

Oops, there goes my impartiality.

Younger audiences are much more media savvy than that, and they "get" this stuff. They know where there are no rules, where it's a free for all on the web, where anything goes. They like that. But they also sometimes want a fix of impartial and balanced - and we should help them to know where to go for that fix. But it needs to be interesting not dull.

Our problem at the 大象传媒 in news is while that many audiences respect what we do, some younger and ethnic minority audiences are put off - not by impartiality - but by our inability to make it matter to them. We don't do enough to explain why these apparently dull stories are interesting and relevant: we don't do enough to make them accessible. Our agenda is sometimes too narrow to feel anything other than a conversation between some middle-aged people from which others are excluded by lack of background knowledge or the tone of the discussion.

And that, of course, is the classic dilemma for the 大象传媒. Paris Hilton's name only has to cross a newsreader's lips for an outcry of "dumbing down" - editorials in the papers and raised eyebrows from politicians and the chattering classes. As a result, we have been known to get a bit cautious editorially in the face of this onslaught.

I think what young audiences want is robust, interesting, passionate debate about stories and issues that affect them and their lives. The voices we hear should be more outspoken, less impartial and from wider, and yes, more extreme, viewpoints. But the glue that holds this together should be the context and impartiality of our journalism - true to it's founding ideals. We should give everyone a say - at the moment we don't always do this. When we do, we'll be stronger, and younger audiences will respect us for it.

The Guardian: Columnist Mark Lawson predicts that TV news will soon be determined by viewers being able to pick and mix the news they watch, replacing the traditional running order. ()

Daily Telegraph: Reports that 大象传媒 correspondent Alan Johnston travelled to the West Bank to thank Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his part in helping to free him. ()

The Times: Article on new Culture Secretary James Purnell and the decisions he faces regarding broadcasting, in particular the 大象传媒. ()

The Guardian: Interviews with John Simpson and Rageh Omaar celebrating the release of Alan Johnston. ()

Lots of things seem designed to make us feel our age, but having an 18-year-old panellist on Question Time has got to be right up there with fresh-faced policemen or thirty-something Cabinet ministers.

Well, we've got two out of three on tonight's special edition of Question Time. Charlie Bell is on his gap year and after appearing in a mock QT yesterday. Ed Miliband, freshly elevated to the Cabinet, is also on. As if that wasn't enough, the show is being co-produced by eight students from four winning schools in the and they've decided the studio audience should be between 14 and 22.

It's a delicate thing handing over a large degree of editorial control to a team who aren't even old enough to vote. So far it's going well, although tonight will be the acid test. It's got to be worth it if it proves that we're open to a generation which is often dismissed as apathetic and they can prove they're up to the job.

David Dimbleby (age unknown) is so enthusiastic he suggested on this morning (which you can watch by clicking here) that there should be a young version of Question Time every week - maybe on 大象传媒3. Perhaps Davina McCall, who's also on tonight's panel, might be interested in presenting it.

UPDATE 6 July: Click here to watch Schools Question Time.

FURTHER UPDATE AT 1530, 6 JULY: Charlie Bell and two of the student producers of Schools Queston Time were interviewed by Anita Anand on Radio Five Live after the show (which you can listen to by clicking here).

Daily Mail: John Humphreys on Alan Johnston and how he'll cope with his newfound fame. ()

The Guardian: Reports on Ofcom's warning that impartiality rules for TV news may be axed in order to connect with more young people and ethnic minorities. ()

Financial Times: First newspaper interview with Sir Michael Lyons since he became 大象传媒 chairman. ()

The Times: Columnist Camilla Cavendish on what the 大象传媒's priorities should be in light of the corporation's annual report. ()

Calls in the middle of the night are something of an occupational hazard for a journalist. Never have I been more pleased to be woken as I was at 1.36 this morning. It was the newsdesk with a line of copy from a news agency. It read:

"大象传媒 JOURNALIST ALAN JOHNSTON FREED, HANDED TO HAMAS OFFICIALS IN GAZA" - PALESTINIAN SOURCE.

It was the end of a nightmare. 114 days after he was abducted, Alan is free. Over the last 16 weeks, more than 200,000 of you have signed our , thousands more have added your comments to our website.

As he crossed from Gaza early this morning, Alan told me how he'd drawn real support from the knowledge that so many people were showing their solidarity - how he felt a duty to get through it to show their support was not misplaced. Typical Alan.

But your support was vital in sustaining not only Alan and his family, but also his colleagues, who, for the past 16 weeks, have rallied in a show of solidarity. And not just on the 大象传媒 News website.

For 14 of his 16 weeks in captivity, Alan had access to the 大象传媒 World Service. The messages from the listeners to World Have Your Say were an enormous source of strength - particularly those from former hostages like Terry Waite, John McCarthy and Brian Keenan who recorded birthday wishes for a special edition of the programme earlier this year.

In launching the 大象传媒's (PDF link) yesterday, the 大象传媒 Director General Mark Thompson said that the 大象传媒 depends on people like Alan - on their courage and integrity and conviction.

Since his release, Alan has conducted a series of media interviews (listen here) in his usual calm and composed way, displaying all of these qualities in his reporting - the same qualities that will help him through the difficult days he will now face as he re-adjusts to normal life. From all of us at the 大象传媒 - to all of you who played your part in helping secure Alan's freedom - thank you.

Daily Telegraph and others: Reports on the release of 大象传媒 correspondent Alan Johnston, who was held captive in Gaza for 114 days. ()

The Guardian: "The 大象传媒 Trust noted research from pollsters Mori indicating that 76% of the UK public said they trusted the corporation's news programmes over any others." ()

The Independent: Reports that a spokesman for the Palestinian militant group, which claims to have kidnapped the 大象传媒 correspondent Alan Johnston, was detained by Hamas in Gaza yesterday. ()

The Guardian: Review of the new Iranian English language news channel, commenting on how its is 鈥渆mulating the design of the 大象传媒 News site to an almost spooky degree鈥�. ()

The events at Glasgow Airport brought home to people in Scotland the stark reality that terrorist attacks are not confined to England or to countries further afield. Nowhere is now immune.

Several of the many, many eye-witnesses who recounted their stories to the 大象传媒 began by saying they thought the scenes unfolding in front of them were linked to a road rage incident.

Gradually, they realised that they were at the centre of a drama which would shatter any notion that somehow Scotland was cocooned from incidents more commonly reported from Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's never a good idea to spend time navel-gazing but for 大象传媒 Scotland, covering this story presented some extra challenges.

The News & Current Affairs Department is roughly halfway through moving from our old headquarters at in the west end of Glasgow, to a new base at on the River Clyde.

Our radio news operation was installed over the past fortnight at Pacific Quay and Saturday was the first online journalists' shifts there. Television will start the crossing later in July.

There's a close relationship between these three sets of journalists, who share information on stories. Under normal circumstances, the broadcast and online output would all come from the same place but until the move's finished, radio and online will be produced at Pacific Quay while television news is broadcast from Queen Margaret Drive.

In effect, we're running a dual operation for a few weeks at the same time as learning new digital production systems at Pacific Quay which will help us to improve and expand our news services.

Saturday evening saw rolling news coverage on 大象传媒 Radio Scotland followed by a two-and-a-half hour special programme on Sunday morning and another half-hour long one in the late afternoon. Television mounted a special Reporting Scotland programme on Sunday evening.

On our website, the on Saturday was clicked on nearly 1.5 million times.

Much of the 大象传媒's coverage was driven by user-generated content in the form of still pictures and video clips taken on mobile phones and e-mailed to us. Yet again, we saw how technology has changed the way news is reported.

Without this material, the scenes showing the blazing Jeep smashed into the terminal building would have remained unseen by anyone not present as the media's journey to the scene of the story was hindered by roadworks on the M8. Then journalists were held back by the expanding police cordon around the airport.

When reporters were able to talk directly to eye-witnesses, there was no shortage of those prepared to step in front of the microphones and cameras.

It's said that Glaswegians are natural story-tellers and despite the life-and-death nature of the situation, humour was still evident.

One in particular struck me. Airport worker John Smeaton spoke about having slipped outside for an unscheduled cigarette break during his shift. He heard the impact of the Jeep hitting the terminal building.

In a matter-of-fact way, Mr Smeaton explained that he ran towards a man who was said to be resisting arrest by a police officer and aimed a kick at him. Reflecting on his actions, his main concern was that he might be disciplined for leaving his post for a fly smoke.

Another exchange is worth repeating. I looked through the many pictures submitted to the 大象传媒 and sent texts back to those whose images had been used online and on television to thank the contributors.

Quick as a flash, one person replied and wrote back: "Nae bother, jist glad it wisnae worse. Any chance o' tickets for Knock Hill [a racing circuit in Fife] tomorrow?"

Sadly I couldn't oblige.

Update 1440: It's now been pointed out to me that has been set up in honour of John Smeaton.

In this week's Newswatch, the programme about viewers' complaints about 大象传媒 News, Breakfast editor David Kermode discusses claims that Breakfast's agenda is too soft. The curtailing of Tony Blair's final prime ministers' questions on the Daily Politics, discussed by Helen Boaden here, is also debated. Watch the programme here.

The Times: A report on the role played by 'citizen journalists' in the coverage of the attack on Glasgow Airport. ()

The Guardian: Comments of Jeremy Paxman's decision to speak at the Edinburgh TV festival this year. ()

Sunday Telegraph: An extended profile of the 大象传媒's economics editor Evan Davis. ()