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My Name Is...: My Name Is Niellah

31/08/2020

My Name Is Niellah

BBC Radio 4 - My Name Is..., My Name Is Niellah

Niellah Arboine asks why Black journalists are so underrepresented in Britain’s newsrooms

Journalist Niellah Arboine asks why Black journalists are so underrepresented in Britain’s newsrooms.

Niellah Arboine is a young journalist at the start of her career. She wants to know why Black journalists like her are so underrepresented in broadcast and print journalism. 

In 2016 research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University found that just 0.2% of journalists are Black - that is one in every 500. Yet Black people make up nearly 4% of the population.

At a time when the Black Lives Matter movement has become resurgent and the coronavirus pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on Black and Brown people, Niellah asks what life is like for Black journalists in the UK today.

She speaks to some of Britain’s leading journalists about how they tackle the challenges of getting into the industry, facing racial prejudice both in newsrooms and in reporting, and finding their voice to report on the experiences of their communities and society as a whole.

She asks what needs to be done to change the culture of Britain’s newsrooms, and what steps need to be taken for print and broadcast journalism to be more inclusive and to truly represent the nation in all its diversity.

Niellah speaks to Liv Little of gal-dem Magazine, Nadine White of the Huffington Post and Rianna Croxford of BBC News. She meets with ITV News anchor Charlene White, talks to journalist and academic Marcus Ryder and questions the Managing Editor of the Evening Standard and The Independent, Doug Wills.

Presented by Niellah Arboine
Produced by Mugabi Turya and Seren Jones.

(Photo: Niellah Arboine. Photo credit: Shopé Delano)

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