About the �� Feed

Life Changes: looking at how we respond to change

2020-04-03T11:00:00+00:00

Kang Nara: A North Korean defector to South Korea who is now an online celebrity streaming and telling stories about life north of the border.

A new season of programmes and features is launching across the ��’s global TV, radio and online networks exploring the theme of change - how we change ourselves, our lives, and how we respond to changes in the world around us.

Reporting from across the world - from Ethiopia, Korea, Rwanda and Paraguay to Egypt, the US and Russia - the documentaries and digital stories cover a diverse range of topics, from sexuality to sustainability, from peace to war, and from neurodiversity to migration.

Why Life Changes?

Early on in the Coronavirus Crisis someone asked me how much I thought life would change as a result. I have no idea, I made clear - I am a journalist, not a sociologist, politician or that newly discovered profession, an epidemiologist. The only thing I knew for certain, I suggested timidly, was that it would not be how we might predict.

And so it isn’t. China apparently moves on and Europe and America are in the midst of a pandemic claiming many thousands more lives.

With life changing so much and so grimly, why now have a season of programmes called Life Changes - prepared over the last year - in what now seems like another age?

Here’s why

Coronavirus is something so big, affecting so many countries that everyone feels they are sharing in it - and by and large we all are in one form or another. Most news is not like that. Mostly the wars and famines that devastate communities, even countries, leave the rest of the world looking on hopefully with compassion and concern, but life goes on.

The experience of those caught up in disasters remain theirs not ours.

To understand those experiences and to break down the barriers between one person and another that may prevent that understanding is one of the jobs of good journalism. If you want to understand how a person’s life is changing you must hear their story.

Life Changes is not about Coronavirus, but it is about understanding what changes us and what can make us happier, more peaceful, and stronger. As it turns out, all that may be quite useful right now.

The Community

Women living on the Ethiopia Eritrean border, opened after 20 years of conflict but then partially closed again.

Life changed forever for the border town of Zalambessa when Ethiopia and Eritrea went to war 20 years ago - separating families and communities on either side of the border. It changed again when that border reopened just 18 months ago thanks to a rapprochement between the two countries. Lives are being transformed. Our film Between The Earth And The Sky begins with a family in their Sunday best walking across the huge flat plains where there is so much sky the earth seems to float in the dazzling sunshine.

The family set out to cross the border. It’s a religious festival so they stop to bow and kiss the hand of the priest walking the other way. It looks like peace itself has been made real. As he walks the young father points to the mounds and dips along the route. They and the old trenches, he explains, and we are taken back to the shelling, the trench warfare, the suffering that has kept their community in aspic. But this is a film infused with life and hope whether it’s imagining a hotel being built or prayers at a baptism.

Elsewhere in the season, we look at how North Korean defectors are turned into celebrities in South Korea, but do the popular reality TV shows and social media platforms the exiles front give a real picture of the North and give them the best chance to integrate into the new home they took so many risks to find?

The Individual

In ADHD And Me, one �� reporter with the condition decides to find out if our world is really ready to accept those who might see things a little differently to the herd. Once seen as nebulous or problematic, as Saeedeh Hashemi - herself diagnosed with ADHD - will show, there is now increasing understanding that living with the condition also brings positives. She meets others who, for all the downsides of the disorder, feel that life without it would be like “living cramped within a frame” and who would not give it up an element of themselves that has fundamentally shaped their personalities.

Integration

Refugee teachers retraining to teach in schools in Germany.

Naomi Scherbel-Bell looks at the integration of refugees into German society and asks whether teachers are the key to matching Germany’s needs and the newcomers’ skills. But as special retraining courses reach completion and despite a huge shortage of teachers in the country, being a refugee teacher to German children might not be as popular as they hoped.

The Millennials

The �� has tried hard to improve diversity of its workforce and the age spread - so that many departments have a good number of millennials. Now they are full of anxiety as we hear from Ekaterina Venediktovaa in Quarter Life Crisis as she talks to those her own age in four continents and finds that coming of age in the world where old social patterns do not work and uncertainty is a permanent feature means they have only one thing in common - uncertainty.

Orgasms

Yes, that’s right; the �� World Service is talking about sex, and never more frankly than here.

According to one reasonably recent US based study, 90% of heterosexual men said they climaxed during sex, while only 60% of women said the same. So is there a way to bring more equality into the pleasure equation? To find out we look at Rwanda and debate over the controversial practice known as gukuna that involves labia elongation. Lily Freeston and Kayleen Devlin present a candid examination of whether the Rwandan experience indicates a more open attitude to discussion about sex, or is there still a long way to go before equality is really found.

The Life Changes season is the result of the �� World Service’s annual ‘Creative Challenge’ in which �� staff, regardless of their role, can pitch their own ideas for programmes.

My colleague Natalia Touzovskaya, Creative Challenge Editor, described this as the ideas journalists come up with are never dull when told with passion and curiosity. The people you meet as a result of that passion and curiosity in these programmes represent something hopeful, but realistic; life changes and mostly, but not always, for the better.

Life Changes is available now on �� World Service.

Solar-powered classrooms and a smart wheelchair - Click reports on how Bangladesh tech is transforming lives

2018-11-08T10:30:00+00:00

�� News Bangla's Afroza Neela with a solar-powered mobile classroom kitbag

Have you heard about Sputnique - a portable, solar-powered multimedia classroom? The super-mobile kit allows Bangladeshi teachers to hold classes anywhere, particularly after natural disasters like flooding or cyclones.

As presenters and producers of the Bangla edition of Click, the ��’s flagship digital technology programme, we spot digital innovations popping up across Bangladesh.

For example, inventor Reza Ul Kabir and his team created Sniffer, an electronic device that can detect gas leaks and alert residents, and many in Dhaka are showing interest in setting it up in their homes.

We’ve covered improvements in health services through mobile technology, where patients in local and district hospitals receive advice from doctors in specialist facilities based elsewhere, instead of having to travel there.

A group of engineering students looked at how they could improve the wheelchair of a beggar, and ended up creating a smart wheelchair inspired by that of their favourite Hollywood character, X-Men’s Professor X.

Reporting the launch of Bangladesh’s first ever satellite, Bangabandhu-1: Faisal Titumir at Satellite Ground Station Gazipur

Another creation is Delivery Robot, piloted by students in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, which can serve both medical staff and patients.

E-Village is an invention by a team from the Computer Science and Information Technology Department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agriculture University. It’s a smart device with sensors that can work with the soil, leaves and seeds and connected to smartphones via an app, telling farmers when and how much to feed planted seeds and the condition of the field.

The device has reduced costs and produced bigger harvests, and has been successfully applied in a village in Gazipur with plans to expand across all Bangladesh.

Our stories of digital innovation in Bangladesh have been featured elsewhere including on �� News Tamil and the global �� edition of Click.

We have also worked with the London-based Click team on a report about initiatives from the Bangladeshi Government and an international charity to produce a floating bamboo home that can survive a flood.

A bamboo, flood-resistant home, featured on �� News Bangla's Click programme

Farmers are using the ‘Sesame app’ which combines machine learning with historical knowledge of weather and crop patterns to help them plan ahead.

Bangladesh often makes the headlines for natural and man-made disasters. But with Click we show another side to the country, stories at the cutting edge of technological innovation that improves lives in Bangladesh, Asia, and around the world.

Click is broadcast by Channel i and is also available at bbc.com/bangla and on the �� News Bangla YouTube channel.

Beyond Fake News: why the World Service is putting a spotlight on distortion and manipulation

2018-11-01T11:00:00+00:00

What is fake news? What’s real? What’s distortion? Should we use the term fake news at all?

These were the questions we grappled with putting together the Beyond Fake News season. The term is being weaponised, becoming contentious and even toxic. Being the ��, we have a definition: false information deliberately and intentionally published and shared - for profit or political gain.

Not everyone uses the term with precision. Some politicians use it as a term of abuse to discredit stories they don’t like. President Trump famously used it to attack critical stories; other world leaders followed suit.

Many respected researchers and journalists prefer the terms distorted news, or misleading information. But despite all its limitations, fake news is a term widely used and understood, especially in regions we’re targeting this November – India and Africa.

It’s the right time to put a spotlight on this dark corner of the internet. When technology creates fake videos, so-called deep fake, when a comedian accurately impersonates President Obama using voice manipulation; when fake stories travel faster than true ones on Twitter and where news feeds create filter bubbles – we at the World Service have to be more proactive in the battle for truth and accuracy.

The Beyond Fake News season is telling stories from across the globe, including India, where the sharing of fake news about child abductions on WhatsApp led to mob murders; Brazil, where bots have been hijacking discourse across the political spectrum; and Africa, where online warriors are attempting to manipulate democratic processes.

You can see many stories on the Fake News landing page here.

This new season fights the challenges posed by fake news, instead of just reporting them. It is crucially important to understand why people share unverified information knowing that it may be untrue.

On 12 November we will publish audience research from India and Africa investigating these motivations.

We are holding major conferences across India and in Nairobi, bringing together key players in news, social media, technology, politics, and education, to seek solutions to the problem of fake news being shared, particularly on encrypted platforms.

The audience research results will provide a framework for young IT experts to participate in solution-seeking hackathons in Nairobi and Delhi, looking at how we can prevent people sharing fake information.

To underpin this we’re sharing �� videos and workshops that give practical help in recognising what’s fake and what’s real.

I was one of the �� staff mentors who delivered these workshops to British children. Our teams in Delhi and Nairobi felt it important that their audiences had access to similar materials. The media and political environment in their countries is much more challenging for young people with recent access to the internet and smart phones, with much less regulation and in much more chaotic, partial and noisy media markets than the UK.

We sent materials developed in London to colleagues in Delhi, Nairobi and Sao Paulo who sought ways of re-versioning them for their audiences. You can see a film made originally for British schoolchildren here.

Beyond Fake News is an important start, but can only succeed by working with other likeminded organisations, local partners, tech giants and our audiences.

The �� Reality Check team will deliver daily verification and fact checking during the Indian elections next year. We are training media partners in Nigeria to ensure they can use verification techniques and hold politicians to account during elections in February.

The �� Monitoring service has a long history in investigating propaganda and fake stories, going back to the Second World War. With new disinformation investigators, they add to �� journalism expertise, recognising when stories are fake, checking sources of stories, pictures, videos and text.

But the main thing the �� can contribute to this battle is a commitment, as a global broadcaster, to honest, independent, accurate and impartial journalism.

The world’s first blind war correspondent and football commentator? �� News Arabic supporting journalists with disabilities

2018-10-25T09:00:00+00:00

Haidar Albaseer is a freelance journalist based in Baghdad

Journalists with disabilities from around the Arab world recently completed three weeks of training in London as part of �� News Arabic’s AimHigh scheme.

I was trained how to record videos and take pictures as a visually-impaired person.

At the earliest possible opportunity I will pass on what I’ve learned to colleagues, because this is something that I’ve suffered from in the past, as other people who knew these new things didn’t want to share it with others.

I would love to share what I’ve learned because that’s how I want to be treated as well.

It’s not easy in Iraq to get a job, especially if you are visually impaired, and I had to do different jobs for free for a long time at first, including interview producer, presenter, football commentator, editor, and studio manager.

I used to listen to the ��, and by chance some journalists in Iraq heard me contributing to phone-in programmes, so they asked me to start work as a journalist. I started in 2004 as a political programmes presenter.

In 2006 most reporters left Iraq because of the security situation, as it was very dangerous to go out on the streets of Baghdad, but I was in the middle of what was happening, and without any protection.

Because people don’t consider someone who’s blind as a journalist I used to go anywhere I wanted without being stopped, because no one ever suspected that I was a journalist.

In 2010 I became a news presenter, again by accident as the presenter who was supposed to broadcast the news had an accident and they had no one else, so they asked me to do it.

Because I can’t read the news I memorise it and recite it by heart. When I suggested the idea of commentating on football matches, everyone laughed as they thought I wasn’t fit to do it, in the same way they thought I wasn’t fit to be a journalist. But one of the directors believed in me and gave me a chance.

I became a war correspondent from when so-called Islamic State came to Iraq in 2014, until 2016. No one predicted that! I used to walk around in the middle of the fighting, in front of the shooting.

Then I started working in local radio.

For football commentary, sometimes I’d go to the stadium, sometimes I’d be in the studio. I prepare for every match three hours before, to memorise the line-up beforehand, the players and the background of the teams. I would have someone tell me only where the football is.

Guinness World Records offered to document this in 2013, with me as the first blind football commentator.

Football commentary in the Arab world is totally different from how it’s done in Europe and South America. In the Arab world, the commentator considers himself part of the game.

For the next six months I’ll be concentrating on a project for the AimHigh scheme, and will make a mini-documentary on subjects including sports for disabled people.

Find out more about AimHigh here.

Why we broadcast what Jamal Khashoggi told us three days before he disappeared

2018-10-10T12:40:00+00:00

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, here appearing on the �� News HARDtalk programme in November, 2017

Some people have questioned the decision by Newshour and The World Tonight to broadcast the words of Jamal Khashoggi recorded shortly before the formal start of an interview.

So I'd like to explain how we arrived at that decision.

Mr Khashoggi, a regular contributor to the World Service, came into Broadcasting House in London the weekend before last. He was on his way from Washington to Istanbul.

The interview was on the subject of the Oslo Middle East peace accords, but while he sat in front of a microphone in our radio studio, Mr Khashoggi was asked whether he could return to Saudi Arabia. In that exchange he spoke of how he feared he would be detained, particularly after acquaintances had been arrested.

Ordinarily, this kind of 'pre-chat' would never be transmitted. But three days after his visit to our studio he disappeared.

It was soon clear that something very serious had happened to Mr Khashoggi.

We began weighing up whether we should be broadcasting this conversation, which had been recorded automatically in the studio.

Firstly, we asked whether there was a clear public interest in what he had said. We felt the answer to this was yes. This may have been the last interview he recorded before his disappearance, and he expressed concerns for his safety. Concerns that have since been borne out.

Next, we asked whether broadcasting this material could put him at any greater risk. This is not an abstract exercise for me. While working for the �� internationally I have had to deal with our own journalists who have been abducted or detained, and appreciate how critical these things can be.

We went back through Mr Khashoggi’s published articles in the Washington Post, and through previous interviews with the ��, and found that nothing expressed in the latest recording was substantially different to words already in the public domain.

As an example, in a previous interview with Newshour in January of this year, he had said, on the record, that he couldn’t return to Saudi Arabia because “I am 60 years old – I have no stomach to spend my time in jail.”

We finally considered whether all this taken together should outweigh the principle of not broadcasting a recording that was not intended for transmission without consent.

We debated this for some time, with arguments on both sides.

In the end we felt broadcasting the conversation was in the public interest, and believe that hearing his fears expressed in his own words, at this particular time, was important and relevant to telling his story.

App around the world with �� Learning English

2018-10-09T14:29:51+00:00

Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. There are seven continents, and �� Learning English has audiences in six of them - perhaps, by the end of reading this blog, all seven.

It was 75 years ago that the �� created a learning English department, known then as English By Radio, or ExR. Originally conceived as shortwave radio broadcasts on the World Service’s forerunner, �� Overseas Service, English By Radio then became involved in print publication and television with productions such as the massively popular series for adult learners Follow Me, followed by, among others, hundreds of millions of people in China.

In 1996, a new technology arrived and the department, now called �� English and soon to be called �� Learning English, launched its very own website. For the 10th anniversary of the online site, the department recreated a selection of its older pages and groundbreaking flashing, spinning, brightly coloured images. You can see these images and the website launch series, a text-only news product called Words, Words, Words, here.

The internet became a brilliant tool for �� Learning English with its ability to offer immediate interaction with language learners. As the technology developed, the internet also provided new distribution mechanisms for audio and video alongside the shortwave broadcasting and new, growing network of FM rebroadcasters.

�� Learning English launched forums, message boards and discussion lists. Podcasts became a mainstay of its output, and one of them, the three-minute The English We Speak has been, for many years, one of the ��'s most popular weekly podcasts with almost 2 million downloads a month.

Naturally, �� Learning English also embraced social media and now has its own Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter channels. In the last 12 months it has also launched nine bilingual services and introduced some shortwave services to African countries as well as North Korea, funded by the UK government.

This year, as we mark our 75th anniversary, we have produced our first app. It brings together our audiences' favourite lessons and presenters in one simple-to-use package. The �� Learning English app currently contains 12 series and is updated on a daily basis. Learners can use the app to study grammar, improve their pronunciation, develop their English through topical news stories, improve their business English with an animated drama or simply learn the latest phrases to use in their everyday conversations.

And the fun doesn't stop there. While the app is constantly being updated, we also plan to add new interactive features, new functionality and new content later this year.

Users of the app can also join us on our 'App around the world' campaign. All they need to do is download the app and then email us a photo of the location where they're using the app with their name and location details to learningenglish@bbc.co.uk. We can then include it in our 'App around the world' map. Who knows, perhaps we will finally get proof that �� Learning English is being used in Antarctica as well, making us truly global.

You can download the �� Learning English app on Android or iOS.

1 year anniversary for Indian languages

2018-10-02T12:40:00+00:00

Six women officers of the Indian Navy sail around the world; image via �� News Marathi

Many people treated the news of the ��’s plan to launch four new language services in India as a rumour.

Today, the four new services – Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi and Telugu – celebrate their first anniversary, busting rumours and showcasing a range of original and bold stories. Their mission statement is to produce creative, credible and disruptive journalism.

Ankur Jain, Editor, �� Gujarati

We began this journey a year ago with our heads firmly on our shoulders and fire in our hearts. In this one year �� Gujarati has translated that into narrating stories that have inspired and triggered debates.

Starting with a news website, �� News Gujarati now produces a 30-minute daily TV bulletin on GSTV (Gujarat Samachar Television) showcasing ��’s original journalism from India and across the world.

With stories like GujaratOnWheels, Gir Cows In Brazil, Gujaratis In Pakistan, Gandhi In China and others, �� Gujarati’s journalism has stood out and made a mark.

Our fearless and even-handed reporting of stories around caste violence and elections helped establish us.

�� News Gujarati in Ahmedabad using an autorickshaw to ask people what kind of stories they want to read online

Ashish Dikshit, Editor, �� Marathi

Taking a cue from Maharashtra’s strong tradition of social reformers, �� Marathi pays great attention to the coverage of women, their issues and their successes.

From women naval officers who circumnavigated the world, to a tribal woman who preserves her indigenous seeds, �� Marathi has always put women first.

Another deficit that we are trying to address is the coverage of global stories which are hardly told on local media. On �� Vishwa, the first digital TV bulletin in India, we focus on top international stories, which is also the strength of the �� World Service.

In the last one year, �� Marathi has done detailed and hard-hitting ground reports of major stories like the Bhima Koregaon riot, has introduced new formats of storytelling like digital videos and has tried hard to make stories relevant to younger audiences.

A vehicle burnt during a caste riot at Bhima Koregaon in central south India; �� News Marathi provided hard-hitting reports from ground zero

Atul Sangar, Editor, �� Punjabi

It has been a very challenging and action-packed year. �� Punjabi is a digital service, filling a crucial gap in the crowded Punjabi media landscape.

�� Punjabi is coming to be recognised as an impartial, balanced and bold media platform for Punjabis - whether living in the Indian Punjab or the diaspora settled in the UK, North America, Europe or elsewhere.

We have made huge efforts to connect Punjabi speakers of India and Pakistan through our stories. While the rest of the media has been harping on the bitter India-Pakistan relations, �� Punjabi has highlighted the less talked about cultural connections between the two sides, to a huge audience response.

A hugely impactful story recently was an interview with Pakistan’s Information Minister who announced that Pakistan was ready to allow Indian Sikhs access to a shrine inside Pakistan. The interview was repeatedly quoted by an Indian Punjab Minister.

Our role lies in connecting with the youth, especially engaging women and giving an expression to important gender stories.

Hindus and Sikhs in a Punjab village help to build a mosque; image via �� News Punjabi

Ram Mohan, Editor, �� Telugu

When �� Telugu started its journey on 2 October 2017 – Gandhi’s birth anniversary – we took a pledge to give the Telugu people a trusted media platform with original, impactful journalism that gives a global perspective to the Telugu audience and takes Telugu perspectives to the world.

Apart from providing a credible media alternative, we are trying to shape the overall news agenda in our region. In the last one year, we have done several stories that the competition has never bothered to report.

That’s why many of our stories have been picked up by major media platforms, establishing our uniqueness in a crowded market.

Many of our stories are related to lives of women and the changes that are happening in Indian society. The Vice President of India, Central Information Commissioner and many popular Telugu personalities have written blogs for us.

Our TV bulletin �� Prapancham is telecast on ETV Andhra Pradesh and ETV Telangana at 10.30pm on weeknights. We are planning to launch �� Click soon.

It has just been a year, but our baby steps show that we are moving in right direction.

An old custom in remote areas of South India forces new mothers and women with periods to stay outside villages in thatched huts without basic needs; image via �� News Telugu

'If Europe's ports are underwater, Brexit may seem less important': we're expanding climate change coverage

2018-09-27T09:50:00+00:00

From 3 October The World Tonight on �� Radio 4 and Newshour on �� World Service will be covering climate change every week.

The ��’s been reporting for a long time that climate change is not some distant issue whose effects that will only be felt by our grandchildren.

Temperature rises are affecting crops, changing the rainforests, and putting massive amounts of extra energy into the world’s weather systems. Rising temperatures are pushing malaria into parts of Africa that have never had the disease.

The increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has made the oceans more acidic, so much so that we can actually observe the shells of tiny snails being dissolved by the water, threatening the entire marine food chain.

While the �� has been consistently covering all of this, and investing heavily in specialist correspondents, climate change doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.

One reason for this is the way daily news programmes tend to work. We’re very good at covering the events of the day. The problem, which all editors and news organisations face, is that some of the most important things happening in the world aren’t always events.

They’re often a process, a trend, a gradual change. They don’t always compete well against daily news events that feel more urgent – explosions, elections, Presidential tweets.

So to make sure climate change doesn’t get crowded out, we’re committing ourselves and our programmes to covering it at least once week.

However, we’re not intending to give you a weekly update on Doomsday.

Mitigating climate change, and adapting to the consequences of what we’ve already done to the atmosphere, is driving huge changes in technology, business, and increasingly, politics.

Our first edition will come from Norway, a country that’s grown rich on fossil fuels, but now hoping to become Europe’s renewable energy “battery.”

We’ve also signed up some climate change diarists from around the world: people on the front line of a changing planet who will keep us posted on what they see around them, from the polar ice caps, to the Amazon, to the Pacific islands, via the Scottish Highlands.

Rest assured – we’ll still cover the daily news. It’s just that if climate change leaves Europe’s ports underwater, Brexit may seem a bit less important.

North and South: a year of �� News Korean

2018-09-26T10:30:00+00:00

The �� News Korean team in Singapore covering the Trump-Kim summit

If your view of the world were shaped by the North Korean newspapers - they are available online, and I look at them every day - Kim Jong-un would certainly be at its centre.

It would be a world as the leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea wants to see it. It’s the world they present to their people.

�� News Korean works to reach them, as well as people in South Korea, to provide a balanced view of the world and international perspective on developments in their countries and the wider region.

These are two very different target audiences.

Judging by the stories of North Korean defectors, people there have a huge hunger for such information. In a country where this, as well as movement of the people, is strictly controlled, there is a demand for independent news.

To get hold of such news people go to great lengths, sometimes taking shortwave radios to remote places to listen to foreign broadcasts, which are illegal in North Korea. They also tamper with their radios to tune into broadcasts other than the pre-fixed government channels.

It is not our job to tell them what is ‘bad’ or ‘good’, and we don’t have any political agenda.

Our daily 20-minute shortwave broadcasts to North Korea started on 25 September 2017, and are structured to meet the needs of this audience, from serious, hard news explainers to quirky stories, to ones we describe as ‘inspire me’ human interest ones, to practical information including weather forecasts.

South Koreans call their language Hangugeo, while North Koreans call it Chosŏnŏ. There are other differences, including Western borrowings in South Korean such as hamburger, coke, and cider, and names of countries differ too.

In our radio broadcasts we explain the concepts of, for instance, drones, or Google, Twitter, artificial intelligence, Christmas, the United Nations, and McDonalds.

The last 10 minutes of each broadcast includes �� Learning English content. The programme airs at half past midnight local time and is repeated five times within three hours.

In South Korea, we have brought to the fore subjects that Korean media tend not to talk about, be it race or LGBT. For example, on the subject of LGBT, we got our subjects – parents and their gay children - in front of the camera to tell us what it was like to come out or to have a daughter or son tell them they are gay; the shock, the social condemnation they had to go through as parents; and the love they have for their child. Many of our videos have gone viral in South Korea, with stories written about them in the press and on television.

As to the stories of North Korea, they range from a moving interview with a defector, pleading for the safety of the family who were caught while attempting to defect, to a fun video about silly questions North Korean defectors get asked.

We conducted high-profile interviews, with Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General, and Song Sang-hyun, former President of the International Criminal Court, and contributed significantly to the wider �� coverage of the Trump-Kim summit in June.

Looking ahead, we are planning to launch a YouTube channel to help us further expand our social media presence. But our biggest aspiration is to produce more resonant, in-depth reports about North Korea, exclusive content that would stand out in the region and, via the wider �� News operation, around the world.

Even more importantly, we want this content to reach North Koreans.

The �� World Service expansion comes thanks to a funding boost of £289m from the UK Government.

A year of three new �� services for Ethiopia and Eritrea

2018-09-18T11:00:00+00:00

Families reuniting after two decades torn apart by the unresolved border conflict

Rachael Akidi Okwir, �� World Service Head of East Africa, today (18 September) celebrates the first anniversary of the launch of three new UK Government-funded language services for Ethiopia and Eritrea, and looks at what the future holds.

I’m not sure any of us had interviewed nearly 80 candidates in one recruitment exercise before.

It was March 2017. For two weeks, together with the then Horn of Africa editorial lead Will Ross and �� Africa Multimedia news editor Lucy Walker, we sat through nearly 80 interviews in a tiny room in the British Council offices in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Within a couple of months the new recruits had embarked on a new journey in the �� East Africa bureau. The move not only changed their lives, but also the media landscape in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The �� News Amharic, Afaan Oromo and Tigrinya services were aiming to reach an audience that had for years been torn between two extreme choices: state-controlled media from both Ethiopia and Eritrea, and opposition platforms created by exiles based in the diaspora.

Forcing government action

The three language services launched their websites on 18 September 2017 and within months were already making waves in the target countries.

One of the most resonant pieces was by �� News Afaan Oromo, about Oddo Shakiso, one of the mineral rich districts in south western Ethiopia. The piece by reporter Habtamu Tibebu investigated the country’s biggest gold mining company MIDROC.

Communities in the area had alleged that some of the mining activities were having not only dangerous effects on the environment but also on people’s lives. They claimed the congenital birth defects present in the community could be linked to the activities of the mines.

Dambali Hexo's daughter was born with a disability

For years, environmentalists along with the communities had campaigned and protested the activities of the company - with little or no response from the authorities.

Following the report, the government revoked the company's mining licence, and said it needed to investigate the alleged adverse effects the company’s activities were having on the communities and environment.

The report had brought the issue to a wider audience, and was picked up by several local and international media organisations.

Seismic shift in the political landscape

The three services launched during a very difficult time for Ethiopia. And nobody predicted that they were about to witness numerous historic events.

The Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, resigned suddenly last February, following weeks of protests by disaffected groups. A state of emergency was imposed and for some weeks it appeared the political environment was going to get worse and even more unpredictable.

Then a new Prime Minister was appointed. At just 41, Abiy Ahmed has overhauled the region.

He announced that Ethiopia would be complying with a 2000 border agreement that gave a disputed strip of land to Eritrea. The two countries had fought a bitter war for nearly 20 years, and had never fully resolved the dispute after successive Ethiopian governments refused to honour the agreement.

The announcement paved the way for major changes, including a restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Last week the common border was officially reopened and both sides started withdrawing troops from the area; marking an official end to the war.

The Tigrinya service reporter Girmay Gerbu was the only �� journalist to witness this historic event. His material was used across �� output. Previously the Amharic service reporter Kalkidan Yibeltal had been one of the few journalists, together with the bilingual reporter Emmanuel Igunza, on the first historic flight between the two countries.

With one historic announcement after another - sometimes on the same day - it has been quite a challenge keeping up with the stories and even determining what to prioritise.

Good news for the media

The PM announced sweeping reforms that included lifting restrictions on the media. Nearly 200 websites and blogs that had been blocked under previous governments were allowed to operate.

Journalists and opposition politicians who had fled the country have since been allowed to return.

The political and media landscape is unrecognisable from a year ago when we launched.

The Eritrean authorities who were suspicious about the launch of the Tigrinya service have since allowed some �� reporters briefly into the country.

We hope we can one day have a full �� presence in Eritrea to cover stories in an authentic and original way.

As both countries implement momentous reforms, we hope the three services will continue to record these moments of history, while bringing stories from a previously under-reported region to the rest of the world.

The �� World Service languages expansion comes thanks to a funding boost of £289m from the UK Government.

“�� Pidgin? I no fit speak Pidgin oooo”: the first year of a groundbreaking service for Africa

2018-09-04T14:30:00+00:00

As �� News Pidgin marks its first anniversary, we are in no doubt about how exciting the past year has been and what the future holds.

The remit for setting up the service was simple - �� World Service set out to expand its reach among young and female audiences in West and Central Africa - and �� News Pidgin was the first of 12 new language services launched as part of the World Service expansion.

It was important that by setting up the service the �� was not focusing on covering negative reports about Africa, but connecting the continent's needs and aspirations.

�� Pidgin?

In the beginning, there were people who just couldn't believe that the �� now reports in Pidgin. "Did you say you work for the �� Pidgin?" was one of the most common questions our colleagues had to answer from obviously curious members of public. There were also those who responded to our reporters by saying: "�� Pidgin? I no fit speak Pidgin oooo."

We had many challenges, the key one being that Pidgin is a largely spoken language and hardly has a commonly agreed spelling or written format. So in the beginning we were constantly challenged by audiences in Ghana who thought certain words should be spelt the Ghanaian way, while Cameroon audiences would disagree just as Sierra Leonean, Liberian and Nigerian audiences would prefer a different approach.

We have had to take the lead by gradually aiming to standardise Pidgin as spoken and written across West and Central Africa, whilst creating some form of generally acceptable usage.

Redefining the media landscape

Two days before the launch on 21 August 2017, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari returned from a three-month medical vacation in the UK. By the following Monday, he was expected back at his duty post.

But President Buhari was a no show. His media aide said the President had to stay away from office because "rodents" had taken over his work space.

It was our first day, and we reported the story in the inimitable Pidgin style: How rat chase President Buhari from office. The report went viral and �� News Pidgin was quoted by major newspapers and online publications in Nigeria and around the world within 24 hours!

�� News Pidgin has not only been referenced by local media in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone and elsewhere in Africa, it has also been quoted by UK papers The Guardian, The Sun, The Independent, and The New York Times and other international media.

The service was also at the forefront of reporting how Nigerians stranded in Libya. We were one of the first media to get an exclusive interview with Libya returnees, one of whom told the story of how she was sold and resold three times over as a sex slave.

Going viral

That story went viral, but we also led in bringing out glimmers of hope, breaking the story of two young Nigerians who met while at the slavery camp in Libya, fell in love and by the time they were rescued by the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, they returned to Nigeria with an eight-month-old baby. Theirs was a story of love in odd places.

In Ghana, we drew attention to a practice ensuring menstruating young girls often miss school because they are forbidden from crossing a particular river while on their monthly cycle. An age-long practice, many Ghanaians didn't know it was still active until we broke the story.

Solution-focused journalism

We were the first to bring global attention to the story of two young Ghanaians who had to drop out of school due to poverty.

While staying at home and helping with the farm, they came up with a solution to the electricity challenge facing their country: Meet boys who dey convert cassava to electricity. Since we reported this, they have been approached by government agencies wanting to help develop their dream.

A report last May caused an earthquake in the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry and beyond - less than 24 hours after the documentary Sweet, Sweet Codeine: see why young pipo dey do codeine diet was released, the Nigerian government placed an outright ban on the production, importation and distribution of codeine in Nigeria.

Pharmaceutical companies indicted by the undercover reporting were closed and codeine products worth billions of Naira have so far been confiscated by the Nigerian authorities.

The future is even more exciting as we have recently launched the first Pidgin essay writing competition to be floated by international media in the region.

As we mark one year, we have had the privilege of securing interviews in Pidgin with dignitaries like the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Paul Arkwright; Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote; Bill Gates; Nigeria's Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo; former Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo and French President Emmanuel Macron, among others.

Welcome to the age of Pidgin!

Visit �� News Pidgin here. Watch Emmanuel Macron and Bill Gates talking in Pidgin here. The �� World Service expansion comes thanks to a funding boost of £289m from the UK Government.

Weather, whisky and wine – the delicate balance of booze and the British climate

2018-08-23T14:25:37+00:00

Sarah Keith-Lucas and Nick Miller, Weather World presenters

Those of us who might have written off UK summers as disappointingly cool and rather wet affairs will have enjoyed the summer of 2018, but as part of a pattern of extreme heat in a multi-continent heatwave, should we be careful what we wish for?

As one of the ��’s broadcast meteorologists, waving my arm over a weather map featuring temperatures exceeding 30C became the norm for a time this summer, rather than the exception.

The UK fell short of breaking its national temperature record of 38.5C, but that perhaps dubious honour was achieved in a number of other countries including Japan hitting 41.1C. Even in the Arctic Circle temperatures topped 30C.

High pressure is a common link between the heatwaves in recent months. In the UK a weak jet stream parked itself to the north of us resulting in high pressure and persistent hot, dry weather. The longer pressure remains high the hotter it tends to become.

Heatwaves are nothing new of course, but as global temperatures rise due to human climate influence in the form of greenhouse gas emissions, climate scientists say heatwaves are likely to produce higher temperatures. In other words when it gets hot, it will be hotter.

In making Weather World we often meet people who are working to mitigate the challenges or harness the opportunities of climate change. For a recent edition of the programme we were in Scotland finding out what the whisky industry is doing to ensure we can all enjoy a wee dram for many years to come.

The Glenlivet distillery is working with scientists from the University of Aberdeen to assess what impact higher temperatures could have on the water supply to the distillery, a crucial element in the making of whisky.

A substantial amount of water is required in the cooling process. Higher temperatures may mean the water arriving at the distillery is warmer and that means more of it would be required to do the same amount of cooling.

The other key ingredient of whisky is barley and this summer’s hot, dry weather has had an impact on yields. More of the same summer weather in the years ahead could limit whisky production. That’s quite significant when you think that in 2017 whisky exports were valued at £4.37bn.

The programme also looks at how the changing climate is benefiting wine producers in southern England where warmer weather has led to the expansion of grape varieties, including some which would have previously been grown in the Spanish region of Rioja.

So there are opportunities and challenges facing drink producers but it’s safe to say our alcohol supply is in good shape for a while yet. However, drinking alcohol in hot weather increases the risk of dehydration and heat stroke. That’s quite the dilemma!

Weather World: Whisky and Wine, is on the �� News Channel at 9.30pm on Friday 24 August, and is repeated across the Bank Holiday weekend.

Bilingual, and want to be a journalist? What it's like as a �� World Service trainee

2018-08-22T10:45:00+00:00

Sofia Aboudari, a World Service trainee attached to �� News Arabic

Any aspiring journalist dreams of working at the ��, for it is the crème de la crème of all broadcasters, at least in my opinion.

I had heard of the Future Voices scheme long before I found myself applying for it on a cold March evening in my mother’s living room until the early hours of the morning.

During one of my journalism lectures my professor mentioned that a former student got his start at the �� on the same scheme, and presently works as a senior broadcast journalist for the Somali service.

She went on to mention that the scheme was aimed at bilingual people. The very same lecturer posted the application link in our course Facebook group, and having read the job description and criteria, I knew I had to apply.

I had completed my MA in multimedia journalism, plus I am bilingual in English and Arabic and was a first generation immigrant, having arrived in the UK some 13 years ago.

It was the perfect opportunity to kick-start my career in journalism and I knew I fitted the bill. Months later, I found myself within the very same building as Mishal Husain, George Alagiah and Sophie Raworth, and of course I had to pinch myself several times.

The scheme entails training in varying domains of broadcast journalism, including learning the ��’s editorial guidelines, training in various software for writing and publishing stories and editing radio pieces, and more. We also practised writing cues and presenting in front of the camera.

A day is dedicated to teaching the software or skill in question, making sure we grasp fully the ins and outs as well practising rigorously, all at the hands of professionals whose careers have spanned decades.

During the session, experienced journalists, editors and reporters would come in and talk to us about their journeys at the ��: what they studied, how they started out, and what they are currently embarking on.

We attended events, editorial meetings, and met journalists, presenters and former Future Voices alumni who now work at the ��.

My stint with �� Arabic included Talking Point, a TV and radio phone-in programme that discusses topics and issues that are creating a buzz in the Arab world.

I partook in production, interviewing, pitching stories, writing for Twitter and Facebook pages, as well filming promos and editing radio outputs. Not only did I greatly improve my journalism skills, I had the opportunity to improve my Arabic, being exposed to dialects and words I had not come across before, and to work with people from all across the region.

The team eventually felt like a family to me, as they were friendly, welcoming and encouraging for me to step out of my comfort zone.

During the second half of the month, I was teamed up with Rasha Kashan, a renowned �� Arabic editor and the founder of Aim High, an initiative training disabled Arab journalists. I translated, researched, and communicated with female influencers from the Gulf and North Africa, who are the least represented on the Arab world’s screens and radio waves.

Ultimately, we presented our individual showcase films that we’d worked on throughout the scheme, which were met with a great acclaim. It also granted us the opportunity to reflect on our experience.

I was a relatively shy person beforehand, but working in a journalistic atmosphere forces you, in the nicest way possible, to come out of your shell. You are communicating with people on a regular basis, be it your colleagues, editors or interviewees, so your shyness somewhat evaporates.

Sure, there exists a huge amount of pressure in the newsrooms that can be anxiety-inducing and daunting at times, but I found that being within the ��’s largest and busiest language service pushes you to deliver to the best of your ability and meet the highest standards, making lifelong friends along the way.

It is the best experience I could ask for as a budding journalist and I am forever indebted to Future Voices and the �� as a whole. I applaud its initiative in giving people like me, young bilingual third culture kids, a chance.

If you speak more than one language and aspire to be a journalist, it’s the best kick-starter for your career and will no doubt open doors for you, so don’t hesitate!

Find out more about trainee schemes and apprenticeships at the �� here.

Eight o’clock will never be the same: �� TV news for Gujaratis launched

2018-08-22T10:00:00+00:00

The �� Samchar team: Mihir Raval, Ankur Jain and Archana Pushpendra

Gujaratis love their evenings. To outsiders, this may sound a bit strange as evenings for many in the world are for raising a toast with their favourite wine, but the dry state of Gujarat heralds its evenings in its own way.

For Gujaratis, evenings are synonymous with conversations over delicious snacks famously called farsan and a steaming cup of cutting chai.

Unlike our counterparts in the east of India, we don’t have a Manna Dey rendition of the song Coffee Houser Sei Addata, but we Gujaratis sure know how to savour our chai pe charcha (discussion over tea).

However, the charcha is set to becoming a lot more intense, brewing with new flavours and narratives.

Tailor-made for the Gujarati palate, �� Samchar launched on 16 July and is our 30-minute evening television bulletin, airing on GSTV Monday-Friday at 8pm IST (India Standard Time).

With sea on one side and desert on another, Gujarat is a land of contrasts.

If the exquisite Hindu-Islamic-Jain architecture of Ahmedabad brought it the title of UNESCO World Heritage City, it’s the acrimonious coexistence of the communities that also makes it one of the most ghettoised cities of India.

If the state boasts of one of most successful female cooperatives in the country, there are also some villages with fewer than 400 women per 1000 men.

If it is the land where Freddie Mercury, aka Farookh Bulsara, had his roots, it is also the land that dethroned a prince, the erstwhile royal Manavendra Singh Gohil, for revealing his sexual orientation.

In October last year we launched the �� News Gujarati website, as part of the expansion of World Service. Up until then, the �� service for Gujaratis was a Hindi radio broadcast, or television news in English.

To most Gujaratis, the �� is the most trusted and reliable media organisation in the world, so �� Samchar brings together the best of the ��’s content produced globally and nationally.

As the clock strikes eight, the vistas in the vibrant state differ from one city to another.

While the state capital Gandhinagar slows its pace for the day, the diamond city of Surat lights up at its glitziest best, the women in the milk co-operatives of Anand tread home after the day’s work to prepare dinner, and on the other side, the white collar men of Vadodara and Rajkot come home from the office to piping hot meals, and Ahmedabad’s jewellery quarter Manek Chowk becomes a bustling night market for foodies.

Gujarat is busy, energetic, weary, and hopeful as the clock strikes eight, and now with �� Samchar, it will also be informed, intrigued, inspired, engaged, empathetic and more.

�� News Gujarati is available here.

"It has brought the best out of me": what it's like being a �� World Service trainee

2018-08-21T13:14:34+00:00

Duale Ali introducing his news story during a showcase event

Getting that call to say that my application to the Future Voices scheme had been successful was the best feeling ever. A wave of shock washed over me, followed by a shriek of excitement, as I kept saying thank you over and over again!

I had been following the @��Getin Twitter account for nearly a year before I saw the video for the scheme. I was transfixed as I knew it was the perfect role for someone like me, an aspiring bilingual journalist who wanted to work at the ��. So, I applied there and then.

They say time flies when you’re having fun, and this definitely rings true when I think of my time at the working at �� World Service. I was excited for my first day but like anyone I was a little nervous. I needn’t have been, because among five other 'future voices' all in the same boat, we instantly had each other’s backs and have since become close friends.

We had an incredible two-week training session working with some of the ��’s best editors, producers, senior broadcast journalists, radio journalists and camera operators. We learnt the methods of radio, online reporting, writing for social media and TV and, my all-time favourite, creating a news story with an iPhone! I took all this knowledge I gained to my language service.

My destination was the Swahili service. Upon arrival I was immediately embraced with open arms, and settled in like family. From the moment I arrived I was eager to contribute: during our editorial meetings, I would suggest what news story should make the Dira Ya Dunia news programme.

After only a few days into my placement I was editing news packages, doing voiceovers and researching. I wasn’t made to feel pressured and only took on as much work as I could handle, and of course was supported by my colleagues whenever I needed it.

During the next four weeks I moved to different departments within the World service, working in the African digital hub, Focus on Africa TV and Focus on Africa radio, which ended being a personal favourite of mine.

I was able to channel my inner radio personality, research, develop stories which were relevant to the audience, and book in interview guests; I felt like I’d found my true purpose. And that’s the amazing thing about the Future Voices scheme, which every day brought on new activities, and I enjoyed the challenges.

The last task before the scheme ended was to create a news story or package, which we also had to film and edit ourselves. Everything we had learned was put to the test. This was then presented at a showcase event to our colleagues and �� senior editors who came to support and congratulate us on our completion.

I feel like I learned a lot about myself in the process, if anything it has brought the best out of me. I’m not going to lie - it made me want to stay at the �� forever.

To anyone thinking of applying, do it! It was one of the best decisions I made in life. I have no regrets whatsoever, it was all worth it. I have met some truly inspiring people on the journey who made my experience all the more special and I know we’ll be friends for a long time.

Not only have I left with great memories, I left with invaluable skills only an organisation like the �� could give me which includes an awareness of wide-ranging journalism covering all media practices.