Where does the BBC have bureaux and why?
Journalism.co.uk had been surprised to learn at last month’s Journalism in Crisis event that the BBC used only stringers to cover South America, according to director of news Helen Boaden.
The location of global bureaux ‘is something to do with your colonial past’ she said, adding to comments by BBC director-general Mark Thompson, when he was questioned by an irate audience member on the corporation’s lack of coverage in that part of the world (specifically Latin America).
Audio here:
Does the BBC really have no bureaux in Central and South America? Well, the BBC press office later told Journalism.co.uk, it depends how you define stringers and bureaux.
There is a distinction between ‘newsgathering hub’ bureaux and ‘non-hub’ regional bureaux the BBC spokesperson said. While there are no ‘newsgathering hub bureaux’ in South and Central Americas, there are four regional offices, located in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Havana. How many in each, Journalism.co.uk asked.
Two in each of the four cities: one producer and one local fixer, both on sponsored stringer contracts with retainers. Other individual stringers cover the rest of the continent other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, with freelancers working from Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Chile and Jamaica.
It’s an interesting question: where are international news organisations’ bureaux and why? A particularly pertinent one to raise, given the difficulties in accessing material from Iran at the moment. The BBC office in Tehran remains open, but permanent correspondent Jon Leyne has been ordered to leave the country, the corporation reported yesterday.
While the BBC had two producers inside a Gaza office in 2008, it did not have any permanent crew on the ground and this affected its coverage of the crisis at the end of that year, and the early part of 2009.
It was helpful for Al Jazeera to have people already based in Gaza, as its two correspondents told Journalism.co.uk in a live-blog interview in April.
NB: Whether Al Jazeera were the ‘only’ English-language international broadcaster in the area for the 12-day media block is still a bone of contention: a journalist later reminded Journalism.co.uk that his employer, Iranian government-funded Press TV, was also reporting from the region during that period.
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June 24th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
The pertinent term here is Latin America, not South America.
And this is gibberish: “Other individual stringers cover the rest of the continent, including Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Chile and Jamaica”.
It’s an interesting topic, though. For comparisons, see how many Latin American cities are served directly by British airlines. It’s a handful, literally, i.e. five.
Both fields illustrate the minor importance Britain gives to Latin America.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for your feedback Keith. I debated whether to use Latin America as this was the term the original questioner specified, but the specific point put to Thompson and Boaden (about halfway through the audio) was how many ‘South American’ bureaux do they have, and this is what I picked up on, rather than on the initial points in the question. I asked the BBC press officer about South and Central America.
The point on the use of ‘continent’ is a fair one, and will be corrected. These were the places specified as examples by the press office – I shall make that clearer in the text. The spokesman’s full quote: “There are bureaux in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Cuba. They are staffed by sponsored stringers who are BBC staff on attachment for a 3 year postings. In addition we have regular freelancers in Columbia, Peru, Venezuela, Chile and Jamaica. They are all non hub bureaux.”
June 24th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
And for anyone interested, this link gives a good breakdown of the Latin American countries: http://lanic.utexas.edu/subject/countries/. UN information on the Americas region here: http://millenniumindicators.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm#americas (UN classifies Mexico as Central America.)
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Hello,
My name is Nuria Leon, and I am the Latin American Journalist who made the question to Mark Thompson. I come originally from Ecuador… So you mentioned that ehy have stringers in ‘Colombia, Peru, Venexuela, Chile and Jamaica@ what about Ecuador and the rest countries of Latin America? Did you asked them about this countries and how is their production process with them? Kind Regards. Nuria
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Hi Nuria,
I’m really glad you found this as I didn’t manage to speak to you at the event, or get hold of your contact details. I thought it was a great question. As you can see from the comments above, I asked the press office about South/Central America more generally, and these were the only examples given to me:
- Regional offices (with sponsored fixer and producer): Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Havana
- Individual stringers: Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Chile and Jamaica
I’ll follow up and check if these were just examples and if they have additional regulars in the other Latin American countries. Please do drop me an email and keep in touch (judith at journalism.co.uk)
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Hi Judith,
You can contact me at:
leonnuria09@gmail.com
n.leon@my.westminster.ac.uk
Please don’t hesitate to send me more information about this topic. I am basically doing a research about it.
All the best
Nuria
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
[...] Nuria Leon, a journalist and postgraduate student at the University of Westminster, recently demanded an explanation from BBC director-general Mark Thompson regarding the lack of varied BBC news content from Latin America. You can listen to the encounter here. [...]