February 2015 RESPONSE BY THE INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING TRUST TO THE BBC TRUST SERVICE REVIEW: BBC RADIO 4, BBC RADIO 4 EXTRA, BBC RADIO 5 LIVE AND BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. IBT believes that, overall, the BBC’s speech radio services are of high quality and serve a range of audiences well. Their coverage of international stories and issues is generally of a high standard, both in their news output and throughout their schedules. This coverage plays an important role in delivering the purpose of ‘bringing the world to the UK.’ 2. Radio 4 has, in recent years, successfully become more internationalist in tone and content. This can be seen particularly in its non-news content. Coverage of the wider world, outside news, plays an important role in providing audiences with a more rounded picture of life in other countries. We commend the efforts that Radio 4 has made in this area in recent years. 3. Radio 5 live covers international breaking news stories with verve and confidence and makes a notable effort to include international experts and news makers. 4. However, we believe that news coverage on the BBC’s speech radio services is too dominated by the big story of the day; space needs to be found for a wider range of stories which better reflect the wider world. 5. We note that there has been a significant change in the tone and content of foreign news coverage as a result of the merger between BBC News and the World Service. We welcome this and we don’t underestimate how difficult it has been to achieve. We congratulate those who have worked hard to achieve this transition. 6. However, whilst there have been efforts made by BBC Radio News to improve the diversity amongst reporters and presenters, we believe that there is still some way to go in addressing this issue in terms of contributors. We would like to see more experts from ethnic minority backgrounds featured across BBC Radio News. 1 INTRODUCTION 2. The International Broadcasting Trust (IBT) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this service review. Our main area of expertise and interest lies in international coverage and the way in which BBC services achieve the global purpose, ‘to bring the world to the UK. ‘ How well does the BBC serve audiences with ‘speech radio’? 3. We believe that, overall, the BBC’s speech radio services are of high quality and serve a range of audiences well. Their coverage of international stories and issues is generally of a high standard, both in their news output and throughout their schedules. This coverage plays an important role in delivering the purpose of ‘bringing the world to the UK.’ 4. Radio 4 has, in recent years, successfully become more internationalist in tone and content. This can be seen particularly in its non-news content. Coverage of the wider world, outside news, plays an important role in providing audiences with a more rounded picture of life in other countries. We commend the efforts that Radio 4 has made in this area in recent years. 5. Radio 5 live covers international breaking news stories with verve and confidence and makes a notable effort to include international experts and news makers. 6. However, we have several areas of concern. These relate principally to news coverage across the BBC’s speech radio services. 7. One of the key challenges in international coverage is to move beyond the big headline story of the day and reflect a more nuanced view of the world beyond the UK. We believe that BBC speech radio has, in recent years, become more successful at meeting this challenge, but there is nevertheless room for improvement. 8. A knowledge and understanding of the wider world is essential for UK citizens as we live and work in an increasingly globalised world. It is also particularly important for UK citizens who have family and other connections outside the UK. 9. News coverage is, of course, dominated by bad news, often natural disasters, wars and famines. It is therefore extremely important that a place is found at the heart of the schedule for coverage which reflects other aspects of life in countries outside the UK. 10. Another important element is the range of voices that feature in news and current affairs output. 11. There has, rightly, been much discussion about the under representation of women as presenters and experts in news and current affairs coverage. 2 BBC speech radio has gone some way to addressing this under representation with two new female presenters now featuring prominently, and appearing regularly. Mishal Hussein and Ritula Shah have both brought a welcome change in tone to their respective programmes, Today and The World Tonight. 12. There has also more generally been a discussion about diversity in broadcasting. We are aware that BBC Television has recently put forward proposals for addressing the under representation of ethnic minorities on and off the screen, by announcing the appointment of six new assistant commissioners from diverse backgrounds. 13. Radio 4 is also making its own contribution to diversity. It is notable that there has been a significant change in the tone of foreign reporting as a result of the growing number of World Service reporters who now appear on Radio 4 news programmes. We welcome this and we believe it is long overdue. 14. We do not underestimate how difficult it is to pull this off. World Service reporters are not trained primarily to broadcast to UK audiences and, to do so successfully, requires the acquisition of new skills. We know that many people both inside and outside the BBC were sceptical about the merger of BBC News and the World Service. However, it is IBT’s view that the merger has benefitted UK audiences and has been successful in improving the tone and content of BBC radio news coverage. We would like to pay tribute to the departing head of the World Service, Peter Horrocks, and the huge contribution he has made during this period of transition. 15. Whilst we praise BBC Radio for addressing the issue of diversity amongst reporters and presenters, we believe that there is still some way to go in addressing this issue in terms of contributors. It is often the case that when a foreign story is being covered by BBC Radio News, and an expert is called for, that expert will frequently be a UK based academic, former diplomat, journalist, commentator or think tank employee. Most of these experts do not come from an ethnic minority background. 16. We believe that BBC Radio News needs to make a greater effort to broaden the range of experts and commentators that it calls on. We would like to see a major initiative to address this issue. A comparison can be made with the issue of female experts. To address this, the BBC has trained something in the region of 150 expert women and many of these now feature as experts on BBC Radio programmes. We would like to see the BBC launch a similar initiative to train ethnic minority experts so that far more of these appear regularly on BBC Radio. When Today or PM is reporting on a foreign story, for example, from Sierra Leone, we would like to feel confident that amongst its bank of experts is at least one person who is a west African or someone of west African origin. We do not argue that this person should be the key or only expert that the BBC 3 calls on, but that such a person’s name should be on a Radio News database. At the moment, we fear that this is not the case. How well are Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 5 live and Radio 5 Sports Extra performing against the terms of their service licences? 17. We believe that all these services are performing well against their service licences, in particular their delivery of the global purpose. Both Radio 4 and Radio 5 live are required in their service licences to make ‘an important contribution’ to the purpose ‘bringing the world to the UK.’ In our view, both these services are successful in achieving that goal. 18. We believe that Radio 4 is particularly successful in the depth, range and quality of its news and current affairs coverage, and that Radio 5 live provides distinctive coverage of breaking news. 19. As mentioned previously, we believe that non-news programmes broadcast by Radio 4 make an important contribution to achieving the global purpose. They present a broader, more nuanced view of the world than is usually found in news coverage. These non-news programmes are engaging and inspiring, often featuring powerful first person testimony that paints a vivid picture of the lives of people in other parts of the world. 20. It is notable that there have been many Radio 4 documentaries in recent times that have taken us to other parts of the world. They have featured stories from across Europe, Afghanistan, Brazil, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Russia, Ukraine and the US. There have been both single documentaries and series such as Letters From Europe. Some of Radio 4’s regular current affairs output, such as Costing the Earth, Crossing Continents and From Our Own Correspondent also play an important role in presenting a broader picture of the rest of the world. We commend Radio 4’s commitment to these programmes. 21. We note that in the most recent service review of Radio 4, which the BBC Trust published in February 2011, audiences spoke favourably of its international news coverage.