BAME BBC (except Newsnight)

 

Today's Woman's Hour discussed diversity in the media. 

The discussion wasn't, of course, remotely diverse in terms of viewpoint. The guests were Yasmin Alibhai Brown, the Guardian's Jane Martinson and Amal Warsame of Women in Journalism, of which organisation both YAB and JM are also committee members. (Small world!). 

They all sang the same tune about how bad it is that the media isn't diverse enough, and the phrase 'male, pale and posh' was bandied about a lot.

The figures in the Women in Journalism report being discussed (which analysed certain programmes over one week) are fascinating though - especially for TV broadcasting. 

BAME presenters are massively over-represented in most of the studied programmes: BBC News at Ten on 43%, BBC Breakfast on 33%, and both BBC News at One and News at Six on 29%. 

Newsnight is the exception with 0% BAME presenters. 

In terms of the experts used, all those programmes either meet or exceed the national BAME population: BBC News at Ten on 22% BBC Breakfast on 19%,  BBC News at One on 13% and News at Six on 20%. 

Again, Newsnight is the exception with 0% BAME experts. 

Wonder if Newsnight will be discussing this tonight? I'm guessing they'll give it a miss.