An extract from Mark Thompson’s RTS speech “The BBC in 2012 and beyond” which will be delivered this evening (14 March).
"Public space is disputed, of course, and in many ways – though none are as troubling as the multiple threats that freedom of speech and good journalism face around the world. Of all the developments of my time as Director-General of the BBC these have been the most negative and the most disturbing.
"The economic pressures that face print journalism in almost all developed countries are an important and complex topic in themselves, and one that I don’t propose to cover in detail this evening – except to say that I do think it is incumbent on a free-to-air broadcaster like the BBC to think carefully about the boundaries of what it offers the public, especially in digital environments, given the scale of the challenge faced by our colleagues in print.
"But what affects all of us is the growing danger that confronts journalists in many parts of the world. I talked about ‘blackest moments’ at the start. The real blackest moments have all been about BBC journalists in peril: the death of colleagues in Somalia, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and the Balkans, the long months of Alan Johnson’s captivity in Gaza, through much of which the expert view about his chances of release and even survival was pessimistic to say the least.
"There was a real sense of shock and pain a few weeks ago when we heard the news of the death of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik and those other journalists who were injured in Homs in Syria. Many of our correspondents had worked alongside Marie over the years. They admired her as a brilliant reporter and loved her as a friend.
"A few have suggested that, in the age of user generated content, the risks of deploying professional journalists to conflicts like Syria outweigh the benefits – why not simply broadcast the smart phone footage posted by activists?
"At the BBC, we do make use of such footage, though we always carefully explain to the public what it is and make it clear that we cannot guarantee its provenance. But we believe that there is no substitute for eye-witness journalism carried out by professionals on the ground. We constantly review safety – and are doing so again in the light of the tragic events in Homs – but, when we believe the risks can be identified and managed, we will continue to deploy BBC teams to Syria and to other dangerous and violent places because we believe it is the only way of bringing the truth of what is happening there to the world.
"But you don’t have to be reporting on the frontline to experience threats and intimidation. As we made clear last month, the BBC’s Persian Service has been made the subject of a sustained attack by the Iranian authorities. Unable to get directly at members of the Persian team themselves – because the whole of the Persian Service is based outside Iran, much of it in London – elements within the regime have taken to the tactic of arresting and intimidating relatives of the team who still live inside the country. Arrest without charge, solitary confinement, threats and inducements to persuade their relations either to leave the Service or to inform on it secretly to Iranian intelligence: this is how the Iranian Government is trying to undermine the BBC Persian Service.
"Its crime? Well, the Iranian equivalent of Ofcom put it best when they compiled a report about the BBC’s new service a few months after launch. In summary, the report acknowledged that the Persian Service seemed to be making every effort to be truthful and fair-minded. That, they said, is why it is so insidious.
"It now looks as if those who seek to disrupt or block BBC Persian may be widening their tactics. There was a day recently when there was a simultaneous attempt to jam two different satellite feeds of BBC Persian into Iran, to disrupt the Service’s London phone-lines by the use of multiple automatic calls, and a sophisticated cyber-attack on the BBC. It is difficult, and may prove impossible, to confirm the source of these attacks, though attempted jamming of BBC services into Iran is nothing new and we regard the coincidence of these different attacks as self-evidently suspicious.
"The cyber-attack on the BBC is not the first we have experienced. For millions of Iranians, BBC Persian is a precious source of reliable information about what is happening in the world and in their own country. I don’t want to go into any more detail about these incidents except to say that we are taking every step we can, as we always do, to ensure that this vital service continues to reach the people who need it."
The full transcript of this speech will be published on this website following its delivery
(Source : BBC Media Centre)
"The economic pressures that face print journalism in almost all developed countries are an important and complex topic in themselves, and one that I don’t propose to cover in detail this evening – except to say that I do think it is incumbent on a free-to-air broadcaster like the BBC to think carefully about the boundaries of what it offers the public, especially in digital environments, given the scale of the challenge faced by our colleagues in print.
"But what affects all of us is the growing danger that confronts journalists in many parts of the world. I talked about ‘blackest moments’ at the start. The real blackest moments have all been about BBC journalists in peril: the death of colleagues in Somalia, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and the Balkans, the long months of Alan Johnson’s captivity in Gaza, through much of which the expert view about his chances of release and even survival was pessimistic to say the least.
"There was a real sense of shock and pain a few weeks ago when we heard the news of the death of Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik and those other journalists who were injured in Homs in Syria. Many of our correspondents had worked alongside Marie over the years. They admired her as a brilliant reporter and loved her as a friend.
"A few have suggested that, in the age of user generated content, the risks of deploying professional journalists to conflicts like Syria outweigh the benefits – why not simply broadcast the smart phone footage posted by activists?
"At the BBC, we do make use of such footage, though we always carefully explain to the public what it is and make it clear that we cannot guarantee its provenance. But we believe that there is no substitute for eye-witness journalism carried out by professionals on the ground. We constantly review safety – and are doing so again in the light of the tragic events in Homs – but, when we believe the risks can be identified and managed, we will continue to deploy BBC teams to Syria and to other dangerous and violent places because we believe it is the only way of bringing the truth of what is happening there to the world.
"But you don’t have to be reporting on the frontline to experience threats and intimidation. As we made clear last month, the BBC’s Persian Service has been made the subject of a sustained attack by the Iranian authorities. Unable to get directly at members of the Persian team themselves – because the whole of the Persian Service is based outside Iran, much of it in London – elements within the regime have taken to the tactic of arresting and intimidating relatives of the team who still live inside the country. Arrest without charge, solitary confinement, threats and inducements to persuade their relations either to leave the Service or to inform on it secretly to Iranian intelligence: this is how the Iranian Government is trying to undermine the BBC Persian Service.
"Its crime? Well, the Iranian equivalent of Ofcom put it best when they compiled a report about the BBC’s new service a few months after launch. In summary, the report acknowledged that the Persian Service seemed to be making every effort to be truthful and fair-minded. That, they said, is why it is so insidious.
"It now looks as if those who seek to disrupt or block BBC Persian may be widening their tactics. There was a day recently when there was a simultaneous attempt to jam two different satellite feeds of BBC Persian into Iran, to disrupt the Service’s London phone-lines by the use of multiple automatic calls, and a sophisticated cyber-attack on the BBC. It is difficult, and may prove impossible, to confirm the source of these attacks, though attempted jamming of BBC services into Iran is nothing new and we regard the coincidence of these different attacks as self-evidently suspicious.
"The cyber-attack on the BBC is not the first we have experienced. For millions of Iranians, BBC Persian is a precious source of reliable information about what is happening in the world and in their own country. I don’t want to go into any more detail about these incidents except to say that we are taking every step we can, as we always do, to ensure that this vital service continues to reach the people who need it."
The full transcript of this speech will be published on this website following its delivery
(Source : BBC Media Centre)
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