The Nation Newspaper

Tag: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

  • Osun guber polls: BBC to hold live debate in Yoruba

    As part of its strategy to bring governance closer to the people, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will hold its Osun State Governorship live debate in Yoruba language.

    This initiative, the first in the country, BBC said is a pilot to next year’s General elections where it intends to do the debate in the three major languages in the country-Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa- as well as English language.

    Governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress’ (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ADC, ADP and SDP would take part in the 90 minutes debate billed for September 14.

    According to BBC’s publicist Marina Forsythe, the debate is meant to built impactful governance in Osun State.

    “The BBC has done debates before general elections in the United Kingdom and will be extending this culture to Nigeria.

    “BBC Yoruba, one of the newly launched language services will kick off the Nigeria debate series in Osun State with the theme: Building impactful governance in Osun State.

    Read Also: BBC launches new company for content creation

    “Most debates in Nigeria are conducted in English language but this is not sufficient for a multicultural nation like Nigeria. We believe that governorship debates in local languages will further bridge the gap between candidates and the electorate.

    “Conducting the debate in Yoruba language also promotes inclusivity and clarity. The beauty of communicating in local languages is that it makes participants active contributors in the conversations that matter to them,” she said.

    “We encourage people to send questions via BBC News Yoruba Facebook page before and during the debate. Audience can also join up with #BBCOsundebate.

    “It will hold on September 14, between 10am and 11:30am at Olagunsoye Oyinlola auditorium, Osun State University. The debate will also be broadcast live by our partners: OSBC TV, Rave FM, OSBC Radio 104.5FM and also the BBC News Yoruba website, Facebook and Instagram TV platforms.

    “This debate is important because BBC Yoruba is for the Yoruba audience. One of the aims of having a Yoruba service is to provide avenues for our audience to participate in social, cultural, economic and political discourses. “This is the first time the BBC is conducting governorship debates in Nigeria and also in local languages- and this is an indication of the premium we place on the Yoruba audience.”

    Asked if the debate was a marketing strategy for the BBC, Forsythe said: “We definitely want to grow new audiences and we recognise that we must go beyond being a news platform. One of the ways to do this is to make BBC platforms a place for purposeful engagements and interaction that adds value to the lives of our audiences.

  • BBC to expand children, youth-oriented online services

    BBC to expand children, youth-oriented online services

    British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Tuesday published a plan to expand output of children’s and youth-oriented programmes, online services and data-driven content.

    BBC’s Director of children’s programmes, Alice Webb, said in London that the broadcast organisation would invest an extra 34 million pounds (44 million dollars) in children’s programmes over the next three years “to reinvent how best to serve our youngest audience.”

    “We promise new forms of content and interactivity online.

    “The new investment will ensure that the BBC’s commitment to informing, educating and entertaining UK children will continue and change the way young audiences consume media fundamentally.

    “The extra funding will come from savings in other areas and will see the annual budget for children’s programmes rise to 124 million pounds by 2019 to 2020, with about one quarter spent on online content.”

    According to her, the audience is rapidly changing and there is the need to keep up.

    “We’re home to the most popular kids’ TV channels in the UK, but as our audience increasingly move online, it’s our job to stay relevant, inspiring and engaging on whichever platform they choose,’’ Webb said.

    She added that the new plan would allow BBC to develop more personal online services that would meet the evolving needs of audience.

    The broadcaster noted that it would also strengthen BBC’s capability for interrogation of data, facts and presentation, including fact-checking claims on social media and working with Facebook on building trust and reducing the impact of ‘fake news’.

  • SMW: Digital correspondents urge women on skills to aid profession

    SMW: Digital correspondents urge women on skills to aid profession

    British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) digital women correspondents on Wednesday urged intending women journalists to acquire skills that would aid them in the changing phase of the profession.

    They disclosed this during the Social Media Week (SMW) 2017 holding in Lagos from Feb. 27 to March 3.

    They spoke on the theme: “Women in Digital: How to stand out in the crowd”, hosted by the BBC World Services.

    Mrs Bilkisu Labaran, the Editorial Lead of BBC said that journalism was changing from its traditional form to the digital platform and urged intending women journalists to try and key into the change.

    “Digital world is where you can get all information and as journalism profession keeps changing, there is the need for one to keep improving herself and pushing to go with the tide.

    “For a woman to stand out in the crowd concerning the profession, she needs to have the passion for what she does and be able to have the right skills, language, journalistic and digital skills.

    “There is the need for the woman to embrace changes so as to be able to go with the tide,” she said.

    Labaran said that BBC was giving women opportunity to get digital jobs with the corporation and urged interested women to check their website for information on how to apply.

    She said that every job that BBC advertised was online, adding that checking online would also help them determine the kind of skills needed to acquire for the needed job.

    Ms Anne Soy, BBC health correspondent said that it took a lot of confidence, persistence, refusal to say no and having the will to learn for the woman to succeed.

    “When you fail, do not be discouraged, push yourself forward and make sure you have the right skills for the job that you are seeking.

    “One needs to find out what she is passionate about, read, research to be able to understand what the topic is all about so that you will be on top of what you do.

    “You need to understand things from the perspective of people you are reporting about so that you do not say things out of line,” she said.

    Ms Miriam Quansah, Digital Lead, BBC, said that having confidence in oneself and be able to project oneself would make one to stand out.

    “If you have the passion for something, it becomes easy and will help you to stand out.

    “As the profession is going digital, and everyone being a potential storyteller, it enables one to go online and tell stories of the hurdles one passes to get to where they are.

    “Passion, interest, confidence and having a digital background will help one to have an edge and be able to communicate with the audience,” she said.

    SMW Lagos is a weeklong conference that provides the ideas, trends, insights and inspiration to help people and businesses understand how to achieve more in a hyper-connected world.

    The event features a central stage for keynotes and panels, multiple rooms for workshops, master classes and presentations and an area dedicated to co-working, networking and interactive installations.

    SMW Lagos’ mission is to help people and organisations connect through collaboration, learning and the sharing of ideas and information.

  • Nigeria’s future can no longer depend on oil revenue- Fashola

    Nigeria’s future can no longer depend on oil revenue- Fashola

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has said that Nigeria could no longer build its future on oil revenue following the fall in global price of oil.

    The minister spoke on Hard Talk, a weekly programme on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) monitored by our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday.

    He stated that Nigeria failed to spend oil money wisely by building infrastructure despite making huge profits from oil in the past.

    The minister specifically blamed the last administration of President Goodluck Jonathan for failing to save profits made from the sale of oil.

    ‎Nigeria, he said, is now facing the consequences of global downturn in oil price resulting from making “regrettable choices.”

    Fashola explained that although Nigeria had made bad choices on how oil money was spent in the past, the present administration, he said, was ready to change that by focusing on taxation as a source of revenue.

    He said: “As I have argued, at the time when there was a lot of prosperity, there was money to spend, we made some now regrettable choices.

    ‎“No nation is immune from what is happening now and people who are better able to weather the storm are perhaps those who invested wisely in educational assets, in security assets, in transportational  assets, power generational assets but it does not make them immune. So it is like preparing for winter really.

    “It is evolving in an era where there is a global economic downturn and there will be local consequences. ‎We did not spend on investments particularly on infrastructure and therefore we consumed all our extraordinary income.

    ‎“You can’t plan a future around extraordinary income that you don’t control the circles. This budget will be driven by resources from taxation and any serious government, any forward looking government like this government must understand that the boom that comes from commodity prices really is extraordinary income.

    “We may have made some very poor choices over the time about how we spent that money (oil money), this administration has a focus now that we will deal with our funding issues first from taxation, corporate taxation.

    “No country survives on her own investment but every country thrives first on the investment of her people and as first Nigerians are responding and investing on that economy ‎I think that we will turn this corner.

    “There is a global downward trend. National growth projections are been revised downward and in this downward global times, there will be diverse local consequences. Ours is not different‎. We are not under

    Performing. We are facing a turbulent time, difficult time but we will navigate. We will come through and I see that happening within a shorter time than a longer time.”

    Speaking on the fight against Boko Haram in the North-East, the minister said that president Muhammadu Buhari had done well in restoring peace to the region.

    Fashola, who debunked claims that thousands of children were dying daily of malnutrition in the region, noted that Buhari had ordered the release of food to the region.

    He said: “Again I have issues with those numbers. They are people who are displaced but to the point to make also is that there is progress now in the north-east.

    “The president has fulfilled his mandate to taking control of the security challenges of the north-east.

    “In terms of restoring order to the north-east I believe the evidence that speaks today, people beginning to trade today on the streets of Borno, and Damarturu, in Yobe.

    ‎“In the last three to four months the president himself ordered release of food support from our strategic reserves of agriculture. So we are mindful of the problems.

    “Construction going on in Adamawa that I am aware of.  Roads being built means that order has return. Securing law and order is the first leg to being able to provide for those child, to put them back, to relocate families back to their homes. It is already happening as a result of government taking responsibility, states and civil society organization.

    ‎Fashola also said Buhari was winning the war against corruption, adding that Nigerians now believe that there is consequences for stealing public funds.

    “The people of Nigeria believe that the president has walked his talk in terms of corruption. Now how many people you ultimately see in jail ‎is one thing and I think that the point must be made and very clearly too that there are many interests here involved.

    “The interest to see people convicted the interest to recover, and the interest to ensure that it won’t happen again. And all of these are going on simultaneously and that people believe that there will be consequences for their actions,” he added.