12 March 2018
BBC World Service and Norway’s NRK are joining forces on a major new podcast-first production, Death in Ice Valley, which will investigate the mysterious death of a woman in Norway in the 1970s.
Death in Ice Valley has been commissioned specifically as a podcast and combines innovative production with first-class journalism and storytelling. Listeners will join investigative reporter Marit Higraff and documentary maker Neil McCarthy on a journey in which they will attempt to piece together the woman’s life. Who was she? Why hasn’t she been missed? Was her death the result of murder or did she take her own life?
Episodes will be released weekly and Marit and Neil are poised to react to any significant leads that come into them from podcast listeners. The series preview will be made available on March 26th, with the first episode launching on April 16.
Often referred to as the ‘Isdal Woman’, the body was discovered in November 1970. No one knew who she was and almost half a century on, her identity remains a mystery. Her badly burnt body was found in the remote Isdalen (Ice Valley) under unusual circumstances. Police investigating at the time found her suitcases at the nearby Bergen railway station, with disguises inside. The woman had stayed in numerous hotels using different names. Labels had been removed from her clothing. It is a case which has perplexed Norway.
All we know is she almost certainly wasn’t Norwegian. This is an international investigation.
NRK’s Marit Higraff has been investigating the case for two years. She and Neil McCarthy will be travelling across Norway and beyond to find out what they can about the woman at the centre of this enduring mystery. A specially commissioned soundscape has been designed by Phil Channell.
Listeners will be invited to join and contribute to a Death in Ice Valley Facebook group –www.facebook.com/groups/deathinicevalley.
Death in Ice Valley follows the BBC World Service’s highly successful and popular podcast, The Assassination.
Mary Hockaday, Controller, BBC World Service English said: “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with NRK, combining the shared expertise of our journalists and documentary makers as they delve into this riveting and perplexing story. The growing popularity of podcasts is phenomenal, and Death in Ice Valley is just one example of how we’re exploring the power of podcasts to offer our World Service audiences new stories and new ways of listening.”
Frank Gander, chief editor for documentaries at NRK, said: “This collaboration with the BBC World Service opens up new possibilities in the case of the Ice Valley woman for NRK. Although we reach 4 of 5 Norwegians daily through radio, TV and online, the BBC has a far wider reach. And one of the main theories in this mystery is that the answers lie somewhere in Europe. It has been exciting and rewarding to work with BBC on this project, and my team and I are anxious to see what kind of feedback we will get when this podcast series starts in April”.
World Service English Podcast Editor Jon Manel, who commissioned the series, said: “We are in the process of transforming our podcast collection. Death in Ice Valley is an immersive, episodic listening experience, designed specifically with podcasting in mind. Investigating a true, very sad and perplexing story, it seeks to use both science and the power of podcasts. Can podcast listeners help to provide answers?”
Ten episodes are being made – and there could be more.
The preview will be available from 26 March and the first episode will be available from 16 April. You can listen to or download Death in Ice Valley via the BBC World Service website or from wherever you get your podcasts. The Death in Ice Valley website is www.bbcworldservice.com/deathinicevalley
12 March 2018
For the first time in its history, the BBC is making an appeal to the United Nations in Geneva to protect the human rights of BBC journalists and their families. This unprecedented move comes in response to years of persecution and harassment by the Iranian authorities, which escalated in 2017.
Tony Hall, BBC Director General, said: “The BBC is taking the unprecedented step of appealing to the United Nations because our own attempts to persuade the Iranian authorities to end their harassment have been completely ignored. In fact, during the past nine years, the collective punishment of BBC Persian Service journalists and their families has worsened. This is not just about the BBC – we are not the only media organisation to have been harassed or forced to compromise when dealing with Iran. In truth, this story is much wider: it is a story about fundamental human rights. We are now asking the community of nations at the UN to support the BBC and uphold the right to freedom of expression.”
Represented by Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC and Jennifer Robinson of Doughty Street Chambers, BBC World Service filed an urgent appeal to UN Special Rapporteurs David Kaye and Asma Jahangir on behalf of BBC Persian staff in October 2017. This week BBC journalists will, for the first time ever, address the Human Rights Council session to call upon member states to take action to protect BBC staff and to ensure their ability to report freely.
Working with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the BBC has organised a series of events during the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week about BBC Persian. These activities include a press conference on Monday 12 March and a side event on Thursday 15 March. BBC representatives will address the Human Rights Council as IFJ spokespeople.
Jeremy Dear, Deputy General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, said: “For many years Iranian journalists have suffered; been forced into hiding, fled into exile, been arrested, jailed and subjected to routine harassment, violence and intimidation. Iranians now increasingly turn to the international media to find out what is happening in their own country. Targeting family members in Iran in an attempt to silence journalists working in London must be stopped; the international community must act now.”
BBC Persian Service journalists in London and their families in Iran have been systematically targeted since the BBC’s satellite television service was launched in 2009. In 2017 the harassment escalated when the Iranian authorities commenced a criminal investigation, alleging BBC Persian Service journalists’ work was a crime against Iran’s national security. This was accompanied by an asset-freezing injunction citing 152 named individuals, comprising mainly of current and former BBC Persian staff, and this injunction prevented journalists and their families from buying or selling their homes and other property in Iran.
Other measures include the arbitrary arrest and detention of family members in Iran, the confiscation of passports and travel bans preventing people leaving Iran, ongoing surveillance of journalists and their families, and the spread of fake and defamatory news targeting individuals especially women journalists.
On Monday 12 March in Geneva, the late UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, Asma Jahangir’s report will be tabled and discussed at the Human Rights Council. The report states:
“In the course of her missions, the Special Rapporteur also met individuals working for the Persian Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. They described how they and their families in the Islamic Republic of Iran had been harassed by the authorities, and threatened if they continued to work for the Service. Some were arbitrarily arrested, detained, and subjected to travel bans. In August 2017, a court in Tehran issued an injunction banning 152 members of staff, former employees, and contributors from carrying out financial transactions in the country on account of “conspiracy against national security”. Until the time of writing, the injunction has not been lifted and harassment has continued. The Special Rapporteur was disturbed after hearing the accounts of the staff members, observing that many preferred to talk individually and in strict privacy. It has been also reported that some staff members have been photographed while in London to impress upon their families that their relative was being watched. The level of fear that Iranians have whether inside the country or outside of it can be illustrated by the fact that the staff members have endured such intimidation for over twelve months. In October 2017, Special Procedure mandate holders issued a statement calling upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to cease all legal action against the staff and their families, and to cease the use of repressive legislation against independent journalism.”
At the time of the asset-freezing injunction, the Association for International Broadcasting lodged a complaint with the Iranian Ambassador in London. The AIB received no acknowledgement or response to the complaint.
4 March 2018
Swiss voters reject initiative to scrap the country’s licence fee-funded broadcasting model
British licence fee payers have to pay £147 a year (and soon £150.50) for access to a rich and diverse offer of public broadcasting services. What would they decide if they were asked (by popular vote) to continue paying not £150, but £345 a year for such services?
This was the choice facing Swiss voters on 4 March, following a popular initiative aimed at scrapping the licence fee and replacing it with more advertising revenues, a subscription-based, a pay-per-view, or another undefined funding system. A clear majority, 71.6%, rejected the initiative, reports Morand Fachot.
Opponents had no clear system in mind
The aim of the “No Billag” initiative (named after the licence fee collecting institution) was to change Article 93 of the Swiss constitution on “Radio and Television” to prevent the government from collecting a licence fee and from providing subsidies to radio and television stations.
Those behind the initiative claimed that it would allow citizens “who prefer to buy newspapers, books, pay for their studies or make a donation to an NGO”, to do so rather than pay a licence fee.
Swiss public, and to a significant degree also private local and regional, broadcasting relies on the licence fee.
Complex and diverse media landscape
The Swiss broadcasting (and media) landscape is complex owing to the country’s regional and linguistic diversity (with four national languages), and its proximity to three very large broadcasting markets (Germany, France and Italy – in addition to Austria), which share three of these same languages.
The latest available survey of national languages shows that German is the main language for 63% of the population, followed by French (22.7%), Italian (8.1%) and Romansch (0.5%), Non-national languages (mainly Portuguese and English) are used by some 21% of the population.
Ensuring similar levels of access to public broadcast services in four national languages for all citizens is a complex and costly undertaking in a country of barely 8.5 million. This task falls mainly on SRG SSR, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), which is funded by a compulsory contribution (licence fee) of 451 Swiss francs (CHF) a year (around £345) per household for radio and TV.
However, this licence fee doesn’t fund SBC only but also 34 local TV and radio stations, which complement public and commercial broadcasting, operate on a non-profit basis and offer access to media training and production facilities.
Some 13,000 jobs depend directly and indirectly on SBC.
The licence fee provides nearly 75% of SBC’s total budget of some £1.25bn, advertising and sponsoring making up about 17% of the overall budget.
A solidarity-based distribution of this budget is aimed at making “an important contribution to national cohesion, mutual understanding and dialogue between the language regions.”
Although the German-speaking part of the country collects some 73% of the licence fee, it receives only 43% of it to fund its German-language radio and TV broadcaster, SRF.
The French-speaking region, which collects 23% of the total fee, receives 33% of the total for its RTS service. The Italian-speaking part, which collects 4% of the total, is allocated a 22% share. As for the Romansch-speaking region service it collects 0.5% of the overall licence fee for a share of 2% of SBC’s budget.
SBC Director General Gilles Marchand stressed that this budget-sharing system, based on solidarity, allows the three main linguistic regions to benefit from similar levels of services irrespective of their economic or demographic weight.
Multiple services – wide audience
SBC broadcasts seven TV channels: a news channel in German and two general interest channels in each of the three main national languages.
It also operates 18 radio stations and a rich online offer in the national languages.
SBC’s reach extends beyond the country’s borders thanks to its online international service in 10 languages Swissinfo (funded equally by SBC and the confederation) and to its participation in international services.
SBC programmes are also broadcast on the global Francophone TV5Monde network, of which SBC is a shareholder, and on 3sat, the German-language network set up by German, Austrian and Swiss public broadcasters.
Taking into account unlimited access to hundreds of TV channels and radio stations from neighbouring countries that share languages with Switzerland, audience figures (share and reach) for the radio and TV services of the three main language SBC networks are very respectable and show them as clear leaders in their respective markets.
For instance, 93 out of the 100 most-viewed programmes on RTS in 2017, were RTS productions.
Meeting the challenge
According to the latest opinion polls, a clear majority emerged against the initiative after the opposite trend was recorded in late 2017. People realized that, in the words of Marchand, there was no “Plan B” from the No Billag supporters, just a “Plan D” for a complete and final dismantling of the public broadcaster and of the 34 radio and TV stations that depend on the licence fee.
In addition to SBC and dozens of private radios and TV channels that benefit from the licence fee, other organisations and public opinion in general increasingly moved against the initiative.
Other public broadcasters in Europe and beyond viewed this initiative with concern. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), together with other media organisations, expressed support for the Swiss public broadcasting system. EBU Director General Noel Curran said: “We should do all we can to ensure that public service broadcasting in Switzerland continues to provide an independent, diverse voice in an increasingly complex and divisive world.”
Lack of credible arguments
The arguments put forward by the No Billag supporters lacked credibility, it would have been unconceivable to fund public broadcasting services in three [four] languages through advertising only in a relatively small market like Switzerland.
According to PwC SBC netted 48.6% of the revenues of Swiss advertising market for radio and TV in 2015. The share of foreign broadcasters was just over 42% and “continued to limit the potential of private Swiss channels” (9% in 2015).
SBC has a positive economic impact in the country. It will invest more than CHF 900m in the country in the next 10 years, according to Marchand.
A report by BAK Economic Intelligence, shows that each franc from the licence fee generates CHF 1.42 in added value, and each million CHF collected results in the creation of 10 jobs in the country.
Communication Minister Doris Leuthard (pictured) said that the licence fee would be lowered from its CHF 451 a year per household to CHF 365 (CHF 1 a day) from 2019 onwards.
As its funding will come under pressure SBC put forward a series of measures.
These include a CHF 100m francs (£77m) efficiency plan, with CHF 80m coming from reinvesting CHF 20m of savings internally.
The advertising ban for SBC online services will continue and SBC decided also not to offer targeted advertising in the regions.
A representative of private radio and TV stations has called for increasing the share of the licence fee allocated to these stations from the current 5% to 10%.
Beyond the economic impact, always difficult to convey to any public anywhere, what seems to have moved a clear majority in favour of keeping the current licence fee-based funding model was the wish to preserve a system that faces tough challenges from international operators, but has always managed to provide high-quality programmes, is well-liked by listeners and viewers and contributes also to social and national cohesion.
A very small price to pay for the equivalent of 95 pence a day per household, less than the price of a cup of coffee…
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