Guardian: Interview: Richard Sambrook, director of BBC Global News
Monday, 15 September 2008, 06:49
Sambrook: "We are operating in an incredibly competitive field that is developing very quickly. If we think the BBC should be one of the world's leading news providers, and that it is one of the UK's best opportunities to have a global brand, in the end you're not going to be able to compete purely on the licence fee. And from [Foreign Office] grant in aid, you're not going to be able to fund an online operation that can keep up with the Googles, Yahoos and CNNs and all the rest of it. You've got to go down the commercial route…"
Saturday, 5 April 2008, 14:11
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David Marash explains why he left Al Jazeera English.
Monday, 12 November 2007, 11:59
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"Wadah Khanfar said that 24-hour news was "obsessed by breaking news", suffering from a "severe lack of historical context", was "betraying" the masses." (via Adrian Monck)
Al-Jazeera won’t get its memo
Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 23:20
Al-Jazeera has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Cabinet Office, asking for a transcript of the 2004 meeting between George Bush and Tony Blair during which Bush allegedly suggested bombing the station’s headquarters in Qatar.
When somebody beat them to this approach by nearly a month, the response was predictable — although the Cabinet Office admitted holding the requested information, they refused disclosure based on the section 27 (detrimental to international relations) exemption to FOIA.
But Newsnight tonight reported that a Downing Street spokesman responded to questions about al-Jazeera’s request by denying that the document contained any reference to bombing al-Jazeera.
I suspect that when it comes 19 working days from now, the formal FOIA response will look a lot like the one Steve Wood received last month (PDF).
