Page 6 - Gulf Marketing Review

M E D I A

“WE’RE NOT ABOUT REPRESENTING

WESTERN VIEWS IN ME ”

Jamie Angus, Deputy Director of BBC World Service Group and Editorial Director of BBC Global News, talks to Sunil
Kumar Singh about the media behemoth’s future strategy in the Middle East.

ell us briefly about your role at the BBC. broadcast in the UK, the objective has been not service operations. However, the government
THow do you strike the right balance be- to make them primarily a commercial venture. never had editorial oversight over the BBC. So
tween editorial and commercial interests? This is why, driven by our commitment unlike other state broadcasters, at the BBC,
Outside the UK, the BBC is run as a heavily to impartial news content not influenced by there is a complete separation between the
commercialised entity under an umbrella com- commercial interests especially inside the UK, editorial and content liberty and the state
pany called Global News Limited, of which BBC World Service doesn’t carry any advertis- funding, and that continues to this day.
I’m the Editorial Director. This enables us to ing. BBC therefore is a strange mix of a public That is because the BBC values its inde-
run a wholly commercial operation through service as well as a commercial entity, with a pendence more than anything else, because
our English language website and the world public service mission to provide high-quality our credibility as an international broadcaster
news TV channel in English. international news to audiences wherever they relies on our audiences understanding that we
Apart from the Editorial Director of a com- are and whatever platform they use. are truly independent from anyone, including
mercially successful venture outside the UK, the British government.
I’m also the Deputy Director of the BBC World In terms of your programming for UK view-
Service Group, which runs traditional free-to-air ers, does the BBC have any funding support What has been the perception of the Arab
programming, such as world service English from the British government? region among your viewers?
and Arabic radio, and the Arabic news chan- All through its history, the BBC has received There is a need for the UK audiences to be
nel. As these are global services that are also government funding for its international world better informed about the region and that’s

6 I GULF MARKETING REVIEW I DECEMBER 2017/FEBRUARY 2018