Neil Arun didn’t want to miss a rare but risky opportunity to embed with an Iraqi police unit, hunting members of al Qaeda. But his employers -- responsible for Neil’s security -- weren’t happy. This film by Richard Pendry nvestigates how a frontline journalist balances risk and reward.
The BBC is the neighbour at the end or your garden with a giant leylandii. He smiles at you and is a nice enough bloke. But the problem is his tree. It’s too big. It greedily sucks in nutrients from the soil and blocks out the sunlight. It’s an impressive tree by any standards, but it casts a massive shadow. And in that gloomy, publicly funded shade, other peoples’ plants struggle to get a foot hold. Some wilt and die. For years the community’s been talking about what should be done. Some people want the eylandii to be severely lopped. Others want it cut down with a chain saw. There are a few who want to keep it as it is and even there’s one odd person who says it should get bigger (though it turns out he works for the tree’s owner). The neighbour has always cheerily promised to “look into it”, but nothing ever seems to happen. The leylandii just keeps growing. Finally there’s talk of the council getting involved. Their tree surgeons say the leylandii should be severely lopped with chain saws and there’s a general feeling that this time they mean business. Immediately and ostentatiously, we see the tree owner up a ladder with a pair of shears. “I’ve decided that we must leave space for other plants to grow” he says with a nervous smile as he delicately snips a few twigs off. “I must listen to legitimate concerns from my neighbours more carefully than in the past, and act sooner to meet them”. Snip, snip, snip; a few more fronds flutter gently to the ground. This week the BBC announced that it would be closing radio stations 6 Music, and the Asian Network. It also said it would be trimming 25% from its website budget. The review comes amid growing debate over the future of the BBC’s £3.6 billion compulsory annual licence fee and murmurings from the Conservative party that it will take a long hard look at BBC funding if it wins the next election. It also follows stinging criticism from News International’s James Murdoch (see previous blogs) that the lavishly and BBC is stifling the growth of private sector media. Here in Kent, for example, we’ve seen the demise of ITV Meridian’s local news in the face of competition from BBC South East Today (which I helped launch back in 2000). ITV’s local news was once the market leader, but has found itself unable to compete in the shade of the towering, publically funded BBC leylandii. The BBC’s Director General Mark Thompson is the neighbour up a ladder with the shears. He hopes a few high profile snips here and there will reassure us all is well. Unfortunately the digital landscape is changing faster and faster and the public mood reflects this. Sooner or later we’re going to need the tree surgeons with their chain saws. Graham Majin is a former BBC Assistant Editor at BBC South East Today. He’s now Head of Video Marketing and Video Production at Kent video production company www.kershmedia.co.uk and www.kwikvid.com
