Separating fact from fiction
Over the past week, two battles have been fought on the borders of Georgia and South Ossetia; a military campaign, and a fight for the airwaves. In both, the BBC has found itself in the middle.
The battle for public opinion has been just as intense. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, viewers to BBC World News - including those up late in the UK - were treated to the extraordinary sight of my colleague Nik Gowing conducting a live interview with Georgian President Saakashvili in his war room during World News America.
The President, "Dad's-Army" style, used a pen to point to a map detailing the latest Russian advance - and this at 3am in the morning in Tbilisi! It's one of around half a dozen interviews President Saakashvili has done with the BBC in the past seven days.
But war, is not only dangerous, it's also dirty. Separating fact from fiction is hard - but it's vital. On 10 August, Russia's English language news channel Russia Today, reported that the death toll in South Ossetia had reached 2,000. While the BBC has Matthew Collin permanently based in Tbilisi - and we were quickly able to reinforce him with colleagues from Moscow and London - getting access to South Ossetia has proved more difficult.
Yesterday colleagues from Danish and Canadian broadcasters were robbed close to the border. It's not been safe enough to travel from Tbilisi to the town of Tskhinvali in South Ossetia, the scene, say the Russians of destructuction at the hands of the Georgians. Not until Wednesday - six days after the first shots were fired - was a BBC team able to get in to see what had happened for themselves, and then only in the company of Russian officials. It's clear there's been great suffering in both Georgia and South Ossetia, but it's proved impossible for us to verify that figure of 2,000 dead.
And for people, like journalists, who deal in facts, that's means war is dangerous, dirty...and frustrating.
Jon Williams is the BBC's world news editor
Recent entries
New ways of linking
- 15 Aug 08, 03:39 PM
We started a trial this week on the website of a different way of linking from within the body of news stories to related background material - our own and other people's.
There's an early example on this story:
The trial will last for about four weeks, for technical reasons is confined for now to the UK edition of the site (which you can select from the left hand side navigation) and is designed to gather your feedback and help us work out the editorial and practical implications of linking in this way from stories.
Linking to relevant background obviously isn't anything new on the site - we've always done it, mostly from the right-hand side of story pages, where we put our own related links, external ones and often a "Newstracker" box listing other news sources. We also do it regularly from textboxes within the main story.
As a rule though we haven't embedded links throughout the text, except for example when listing web sources or in diary-type pages, and of course we do it in our blogs. One of the reasons is we don't want to interrupt a news story by sending the reader off the page in the middle of a sentence.
The idea of the system we are trying out now (called Apture) is that it shows the related content in a smaller window within the same page, whilst also being quick and simple for the journalists to add. So it's a way of testing whether we can make background content quicker and easier to add, find and access, without getting in the way of those readers who don't want to be distracted by it. And it's part of our ongoing work to improve people's experience on the site in general.
For the trial we're linking to our own content as well as relevant external sources, including Wikipedia articles, YouTube and Flickr content. We wanted to include these sources because they promote sharing of content, have a huge array of material of potential editorial relevance, are technically easy to work with and also we wanted to gauge your thoughts about us linking to these user generated sources.
We're not taking an exclusive approach to which sources we link to, the whole idea is to try out and develop a system that is flexible enough for pretty much anything. If you get time to have a look, let us know what you think - there's a feedback button on each link.
Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website
Olympic overdose?
- 8 Aug 08, 02:54 PM
Have you had enough of the Olympics already?
Luckily, despite the fact August has dawned, bringing with it the summer silly season, we have plenty of other stories to keep you watching.
With only 30 minutes of air time what exactly is the news today? Well, like it or not, Beijing has put on one of the most memorable ceremonies any of us have ever seen. Today is not about sport but about China making a statement to the world. It's worked - after years of planning - the design, the choreography, the lighting of this three hour performance guarantees its place at the top of the bulletin.
For those of you who look beyond our shores, strong pictures of fierce fighting in the disputed region of South Ossetia will be explained and analysed. Not a natural story for the Six? With Russia threatening a robust response, it's right to be in the show.
So, keep watching - yes there's lots on the Olympics but remember it is only once every four years, and who knows, we might win a medal or two.
Katy Searle is an output editor on the BBC News at Six
My Games
- 7 Aug 08, 04:20 PM
As we get ready for the Olympics starting in Beijing, the games pose us a bit of a problem. A global event like this should be a gift to a news channel with an audience around the world. All those countries participating, all that action to report on. The trouble is, we can only show tiny snapshots of that action.
Our answer is My Games - a live interactive TV and online show hosted by Adnan Nawaz from Beijing that taps into the views and passions of fans from all over the world, and cunningly avoids the need to show any official Olympics pictures.
Adnan presented a similar show last year with My Cricket World Cup. Once again we couldn't show any of the actual cricket but the enthusiasm and passion for the game generated a huge response from fans in the participating countries.
The Olympics, of course, is far bigger. Global excitement about dressage or archery may be more diffuse than say, the men's 100 metres, but it will be interesting to explore the world's common reference points.
To kick off our coverage, we've been asking people what three words sum up the Olympics to them. The Chinese and the IOC will be delighted that upbeat words such as peace, togetherness, glory and hope crop up across the world. And, from one disgruntled Londoner: "a waste of money".
Let the fun begin.
Mary Wilkinson is commissioning editor of BBC World News
To cover or not to cover
- 5 Aug 08, 10:25 AM
The programme that I produce - World News America - has as its primary mission to bring smart and sophisticated BBC coverage of international issues and events to an American audience.
Of course there's no shortage of political reporting in the US at the moment; frankly, it's more like a glut. So our effort, as I've said before, is to focus on the quality of our coverage rather than the quantity.
Last week provides an interesting example. We made a deliberate decision to steer clear of the whole flap over the McCain campaign ad comparing Obama to Britney and Paris, and the subsequent back-and-forth about whether Obama had or had not "played the race card."
Of course it got a huge amount of play in other US media, and when I picked up the Washington Post on Saturday and saw that it had devoted its entire editorial page to the disputes, I have to confess to wondering whether I had made a bad call, and missed a big story.
Then I read every one of the essays in the Post. All written by extremely knowledgeable and able Washington insiders, they focused exclusively on questions of campaign tactics. Had McCain rattled Obama? Had Obama made an "unforced error?" Had McCain gone too negative too fast? Who had the better week?
Those pieces - and the story in general - were no doubt lapped up by campaign junkies. But there wasn't a single mention of an issue for almost an entire week, and precious little discussion of the actual qualities and characteristics the next American President ought to have.
I absolutely love the story of this election, and I'm proud of our coverage so far. And, despite a few moments of doubt over my Saturday coffee, I'm glad we ignored the nonsense of last week.
Rome Hartman is executive producer of BBC World News America
Talking politics
- 31 Jul 08, 02:35 PM
Grey clouds - strong winds - lashing rain - brilliant sunshine. The weather in Newquay on Tuesday was the usual varied English seaside mix that leaves us wondering whether to go for the shorts or the brolly.
But this encounter was about real people - with real problems and questions: not the tea room plotting and chatter of Westminster. That can dampen anyone's mood.
Was he "borderline smug" as 29-year-old single mum Lauren Evans wondered? What's he going to do about underage drinking? - wondered 14-year-old Laura Barritt. Polish immigration in the building trade was what was on the mind of 26-year-old labourer Ross McKay while Shevell Bachelor was worried about urban knife crime.
You can read his answers and read our political reporter Rajini Vaidyanathan's account account.
There's also a film to watch. You may also have seen Rajini's film on Wednesday night's Newsnight on BBC2.
When it was all over - our panel - and some of our millions of listeners had their say via interview, text or online comment.
After reading them I was left with two clear observations. Those who were present thought Cameron was likeable and impressive, but had work to do to convince people to vote positively for the Conservatives.
My second impression from listeners who weren't there was that our listener panel nailed the key issues facing young Britain but not yet all the answers they expect to hear.
Winning over the politically sceptical or disengaged is a mountain for the Conservatives -and, to be fair, all parties - to climb.
Talking Turkey
- 31 Jul 08, 11:30 AM
It's been an eventful week for Turkey. On Sunday, 17 people were killed in bomb attacks in Istanbul and on Wednesday the Constitutional Court narrowly decided not to ban the governing AK party - which has been accused of being an Islamist party in violation of Turkey's secular constitution.
Having our own reporter there enabled us to get access to interviews with Turkish politicians and people which we wouldn't normally get.
I have been asked why I decided to invest in this story by sending a reporter and devoting so much airtime to it.
The answer is simple - and I hope this came out in our coverage. Turkey is central to two major issues facing the world today - the relationship between Islam and democracy and the future development of the European Union, which Turkey wants to join.
The Turkish republic was founded by an army officer, Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, as the Ottoman Empire collapsed after the First World War. He established a secular state where before the Ottoman Empire had been an Islamic state in the sense that it claimed to be the successor of the original Caliphate.
He and his successor ruled the country until the first democratic election in 1950, but periods of democratic rule have been punctuated since by coups by the army which regards itself as the guardian of the secular state founded by Ataturk.
The country has been governed by the AK (Justice and Development) Party for the past six years which was returned to power last year with a big majority. AK describes itself as a moderate conservative pro-Western party, its critics say it is a closet Islamist party trying to introduce an Islamic state by stealth.
So you have a tension between a democratic system that returns a government that many in the secularist establishment of the country regard as unconstitutional. What happens in Turkey will have an impact on the evolution of democracy in Muslim states. Our presenter, Robin Lustig, has also blogged on this.
Turkey also wants to join the EU - something opposed by many politicians in France and Germany but supported by governments such as the UK. A large Muslim country much of which is situated in Asia, rather than Europe, would inevitably change the nature of the EU.
The AK party is a strong supporter of EU membership so its future is important to that ambition - even if this ambition is now in jeopardy by apparent enlargement fatigue in the EU.
I believe Turkey is worth the coverage, but let me know if you agree.
Alistair Burnett is editor of the World Tonight
Farewell
- 30 Jul 08, 05:07 PM
Ok then, I'm off.
My reasoning was pretty straightforward - I was looking for something at least as interesting, eventful and as much fun as Newsnight. That leaves a short list of options.
Experimenting with new media has been one of the joys of running Newsnight. There have been new products and possibilities almost every week. We've piled into many of them although so far, unlike Downing Street, we've resisted Twitter.
Some of our wheezes proved controversial but four years on I don't think anyone - and certainly not Jeremy - would argue that Newsnight should be simply a TV programme shown once at 10.30pm.
The digital revolution means I've been the first Newsnight editor to look after a programme which can be accessed at any time of the day or night anywhere in the world. You can engage us in conversation and we can - and should - explain our inner thinking.
So I'd like to take this chance to thank publicly the brilliant, creative and committed team who put together Newsnight five nights a week. To thank the six million or so viewers who stick with Newsnight week in week out despite the proliferation of competing demands for their eyeballs.
And to say thanks and farewell to those diehard Newsnight fans who subscribe to the e-mail, read blogs like this one and visit the website every day to catch up on the programme and have fun picking holes in it.
From Friday I'll be joining your number.
Peter Barron is editor of Newsnight
US party season
- 29 Jul 08, 12:02 PM
Much of the BBC is counting down to Beijing these days, and the opening of the Olympic Games. But here in Washington, we're counting down to Denver, and the beginning of the 2008 political convention season.
Nominally, the business at hand was to install Vice President George HW Bush as the nominee, and to say goodbye to the man who even now remains the Republican hero, Ronald Reagan.
The GOP (Grand Old Party) managed that 'baton hand-off' reasonably well...well enough to launch Bush into the White House. But I honestly don't remember much of what happened at the podium that week. Instead, my memories are filled with music (I'm pretty sure I remember my wonderful CBS colleague Ed Bradley 'sitting in' with a band called Buckwheat Zydeco) and with food (shrimp 'po boys' from a place called Messina's...'debris' sandwiches from the legendary Mother's).
Don't get me wrong; we worked hard, but whether it was because of the Louisiana setting or simply being my first time, there has not been a convention since - and I've covered a bunch - that offered quite as much fun as that one.
What I do expect is to have one hell of a story to cover - in both cities - and to work very hard to deliver a distinctive take on both party conventions to our audiences in American and around the world.
The media are much more focused on the Democratic convention at the moment, and it will be a fascinating thing to watch Barack Obama officially take the reins of his party.
But Minneapolis also offers a couple of fascinating storylines: what kind of a 'sendoff' will the GOP give to George W Bush?
And what kind of a reception will John McCain get from those in the Republican party who haven't always welcomed his maverick ways?
As always, what the BBC will be able to provide is not the most coverage...we can't compete with the endless hours the American cable news networks will offer...but hopefully the smartest coverage, from the perspective of what I like to call 'the friendly outsider with the slightly arched eyebrow.'
World News America will be led, as always, by Matt Frei and Katty Kay, who have been delivering incomparable political coverage all year long, and they'll be joined in Denver by Ted Koppel, one of the sharpest and most experienced journalists on the American scene.
We'll be working from sunup to well past sundown. But a guy's gotta eat, right? So if anyone knows where I can get a really good shrimp po' boy in Colorado or Minnesota, will you please drop me a line?
Rome Hartman is executive producer of BBC World News America
Right place, wrong time
- 28 Jul 08, 04:55 PM
The spectacular fire on the pier at Weston-super-Mare caused a fair degree of early morning teeth-gnashing in the newsroom, swiftly followed by heartfelt and relieved thanks to our fantastically public-spirited and technically literate audience.
By the time our own team had hot-footed it to Weston, the fire was beginning to die down - but by then we had already received some fantastic "UGC" (User Generated Content) from scores of citizen journalists who were instrumental in helping us convey the drama and sheer scale of the fire.
In fact, by lunchtime BBC News had received almost 500 stills and dozens of video sequences from members of the public, either e-mailed or texted in to us. To everyone who contributed, a big thank you!
Whilst lots of you were contacting BBC News in London direct, many were in touch with the Points West newsroom in Bristol, while others were delivering some amazing pictures direct to our satellite truck in Weston (Ray and Ralph, that's you!). You can see some of their fabulous footage here.
Which just goes to show that you can strike lucky - or not - in having a camera crew on hand for unexpected news stories, but you can almost always count on someone with a camera being nearby. And that someone could be you!
Simon Waldman is morning editor on BBC News
Apple backlash?
- 28 Jul 08, 12:58 PM
At the risk of igniting yet another flurry of Apple v PC fervour, and with a heavy heart at returning to the subject so soon, Stephen Fry, who we love and admire, took a pop at the BBC over the weekend for not doing enough stories about Apple products.
It's a criticism I haven't heard before. He feels we are running scared of an anti-Apple community backlash. My colleague, online technology editor Darren Waters, has written this heartfelt response to Stephen who's clearly now a signed up member of the anti-anti Apple Community (if that's possible).
---
By Darren Waters
Stephen's an educated and interesting columnist on technology, but unless he's been popping into our editorial meetings each morning without my knowledge, I don't see how he would know how we decide which stories to cover.
As editor of the technology section, it is my job, with the help of my colleagues, to decide which stories we write about.
And even if Stephen had popped in to see us - and by the way, he's welcome any time - he wouldn't have seen or heard us discuss, debate, or even mention not doing any legitimate stories about Apple because we fear an anti-Apple community backlash.
The reality of writing about any subject which engenders passions - and technology is definitely one of those - is that no matter what one writes about, there is always someone who believes we should have written about something else, or written it differently. But this issue is not about Apple; it is about the editorial process itself. Every day, my colleagues and I on the technology section spend time questioning ourselves about the legitimacy of any story.
All serious journalists ask that question, each and every day. Sometimes that debate about legitimacy lasts a micro-second, sometimes it lasts a lot longer.
We are juggling finite resources covering a subject area with almost infinite scope and complexity. Sometimes I am asked why we haven't written about Subject A, and why we have written about Subject B. The answer most of the time is that we did not have enough resources to write about A and felt B was a more relevant story to the majority of our readers. A backlash from any quarter never enters into the discussion.I sadly predict such a mundane answer wouldn't qualify as interesting enough to earn maximum points on Stephen's BBC Two show QI, but there we are.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment