The bbc’s coverage of ukraine has been good — can they keep it up? | thearticle

The BBC has thrown its full weight behind its coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The News Channel, which provides the best coverage so far of the invasion, offers close to 24/7

coverage, though much of the rolling news is repeated and recycles reports destined for main news bulletins. At the weekend you could hear John Simpson reporting from Finland, Jeremy Bowen

has flown into Ukraine, Lyse Doucet has been in Kyiv from the start of the invasion, Steve Rosenberg (whose great-grandfather came from Belarus) has been reporting from Moscow for most of

the last two decades and Sarah Rainsford, expelled from Russia last year, is now reporting from Ukraine. Add Nick Robinson for _Today_ , Fergal Keane, Clive Myrie , Orla Gueri n and others:

this is pretty much what the BBC would call its A-team. (At the time of writing, the BBC has announced that it is suspending its broadcasting from Russia due to new censorship laws imposed

last week.) The best coverage, though, has come from Ros Atkins, Christian Fraser and their production teams, though _Context_ (presented by Fraser) is a poor substitute for _Beyond 100

Days_, presented by Fraser and Katty Kay, which offered the best coverage of US politics on British TV. You can get a flavour of Atkins’ s programme, _ Outside Source _ (now extended to two

hours on weeknights), from some of the three-minute videos that he has posted on Twitter (@BBCRosAtkins). What distinguishes these programmes is the quality of the analysis and some of the

talking heads who are interviewed: American political advisers, from Left and Right, academics and European policy analysts. At the more populist end of the market there is Adrian Chiles’s

late morning programme on 5 Live — he seems to have increased his slots in place of Naga Munchetty. His producers have lined up some excellent interviewees. One morning you could hear

Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, followed immediately by the excellent Misha Glenny. This line-up would have been a credit to the _Today _programme. However, Chiles has been at his best

interviewing Ukrainians about their experience of the invasion. He captures exactly the right tone of seriousness and empathy. However, there have been several problems with the BBC’s

coverage. First, have they got the right balance between analysis and human interest stories? Of course, as more authoritative commentators like Roger Mosey (previously Head of BBC

Television News) would be quick to point out, the BBC has to serve a wide range of audiences with varying levels of knowledge of Ukraine and interest in international news. The BBC News

Channel has a small audience who expect serious analysis and informed talking heads, with less emphasis on human interest stories. Atkins and Fraser have exactly the right tone for this kind

of audience. _The Ten O’Clock News_, by contrast, reaches a far larger audience who seem to want more human interest stories. At least, that’s what they get. So the BBC’s flagship news

programmes offer moving footage of children with cancer, reports by Fergal Keane about families at stations being separated by war, moving footage of a Ukrainian man watching in tears as his

home is burnt to the ground by Russian bombs (complete with tear-jerking footage of his dog looking disconsolate). The decision to unleash Keane and Orla Guerin and to have the daily

reports fronted by Clive Myrie was a clear declaration of intent. Never mind the level of analysis or local expertise. Bring in the experienced international reporters who have covered

plenty of war zones in their time. Who knew that stories about wounded children or devastated families look much the same, whether they are in Kyiv or Gaza, Kharkiv or Afghanistan? The BBC

knew, when they flew in Guerin, Myrie and Keane. They know much of their audience has a limited appetite for highbrow analysis or news reports from cities many of us have never heard of. If

it’s the same sort of reporting we get from any war zone, so what? The key thing, the programme editors of the 6 and 10 O’Clock News decided, was to provide their audience with the best kind

of human interest news. Whether that audience approves of the wall-to-wall coverage or wonders, bemused, why there is so little domestic news any more, only time will tell. If this means

BBC News coverage has been short of analysis of the effect of financial sanctions, the view from Paris, Berlin and Warsaw, or even Washington, historical background on Ukraine’s dark and

complex relations with Russia, then so be it. Or, rather, that’s what the more serious output on Radio 4 and the BBC News Channel is there for. Is this good enough? BBC News Executives would

say, yes. So would many viewers and listeners. Others might not. Did the wall-to-wall coverage of Partygate prepare BBC audiences for what was happening in Russia and Ukraine, just a few

weeks ago? Do we need programmes which give us proper background analysis before, not just after, big stories break and the tanks roll in? What does the BBC offer us that is remotely in the

same league as _ Weekend World _ , which from 1972 to 1988 provided rigorous analysis every Sunday of major domestic and international news stories produced and presented by really smart

people with a huge appetite for ideas? _ Newsnight _ should provide this level of analysis, but doesn’t and hasn’t for some years — though Mark Urban is doing a fine job, as always. Emily

Maitlis and Kirsty Wark are not Brian Walden, talent seems to be leaving at some rate (Ian Katz and Esme Wren, both to Channel 4, Emma Barnett and now Emily Maitlis), which suggests deeper

problems, and there has been an ongoing debate about editorial bias for some years. The days of Sir John Tusa and even Evan Davis seem a world away. Worst of all, the ratings are in

free-fall. The programme’s average audience in 2015 was 579,000 compared to 867,000 in 2008. The average audience was down to 344,000 in September 2018 and by August 2020 around 300,000.

Even if the Ukraine crisis has given these figures a temporary boost, it starts from the lowest base ever. The producers and presenters of this flagship programme have lost two-thirds of

their audience in just over a decade. The BBC deserves full marks for reaching out to a large audience with a huge appetite for human interest stories and has been committed to sending their

best-known reporters and presenters to cover a story that is not obviously close to their audience’s hearts. The Corporation has said, quite clearly, this story _matters_._ _It has also

provided a real range of coverage. But as the BBC waits for its new head of News and Current Affairs to arrive, its staff will wonder if the scale of this commitment will guarantee the

increased licence fee they long for.   A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s

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