In a letter to the BBC’s Director General, the Methodist Church has expressed ‘deep concern’ over the announcement of immediate structural changes to the BBC’s Religion and Ethics department.
The Manchester-based Religion and Ethics team will be combined with the BBC’s Factual department and the newly formed Factual and Religion department will be managed from Birmingham.
The full text of the letter follows:
Dear Mr Thompson,
We write to you to express our deep concern over the recent news of structural changes to the BBC’s Religion and Ethics department.
The Methodist Church would like to express our gratitude for the outstanding work of the BBC in the field of Religion and Ethics, on television, on radio and online. The BBC’s creativity and authority in their engagement with a vast range of ethical issues, faith groups and life stories not only reaches individuals to whom these matters are important, but also resources public awareness and debate, enriching the life of the nations.
We are seeking your reassurance that under the newly formed Factual and Religion department this work will not only continue to the high standards already set by your dedicated team, but will be given the space and resources to creatively develop.
We would like to express our pastoral concern and offer our prayerful support to all staff directly affected by these changes as they make this transition.
Yours sincerely,
Revd Dr Martyn Atkins
General Secretary of the British Methodist Church
Revd Stephen Poxon
President of the British Methodist Conference
Mr David Walton
Vice-President of the British Methodist Conference
Source: Methodist News Service 07/02/09
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
+-+Olive+(4).jpg)
1 comment:
Since our concerns about proposed changes to the BBC’s Religion and Ethics department were initially raised on Saturday, we are pleased to have received some clarification from the BBC.
The changes principally concern the management structures of BBC Religion and Ethics, which will involve Nick Patten, currently Head of the Birmingham Factual team, immediately taking on a management role covering both the Manchester and Birmingham teams. Manchester Religion and Ethics team will now feature a dedicated Commissioning Editor position, to be filled as soon as possible.
I have received reassurance from Tom Archer, Controller of Factual Production for the BBC, that the Religion and Ethics department in Manchester will continue to provide specialist programming for the BBC and that the new changes will allow for greater creative development of Religion and Ethics programming.
We continue to offer our prayerful support to BBC staff as they adjust to the new management structures and look forward to seeing the excellent work of the Religion and Ethics team grow and develop as promised.
Anna Drew | Lead Media Officer
The Christian Communication, Evangelism and Advocacy Cluster| The Connexional Team
020 7467 5191 [direct line] 07881783812 [mobile]
The Methodist Church
Methodist Church House,
25 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5JR | 020 7486 5502 [Helpdesk]
www.methodist.org.uk
Post a Comment