“International broadcasting becoming more relevant” - BBC executive

Globalisation has made international broadcasting more relevant than ever before, a conference in Iran was told today. Richard Sambrook, Director of BBC Global News, said this in a keynote address at the opening of the first International Radio Forum being held in Isfahan.

He said the digital media revolution was crossing geographical boundaries, cultures and races, enabling audiences to access information and news wherever and wherever they wanted it. “There was an argument that being international meant being out of touch. It was believed that local and national identities had the upper hand and therefore local and national media would kill off the international broadcaster,” he said.

“Then came the major forces which underpin globalisation: international security, migration, the concerns over climate change and the worries about the interconnectedness of the global economy. These issues, and many more, have made people realise that the forces that impact on their lives are not just about their village, their city, their country. They are international forces, ones that are not constrained by the nation state, not soluble by them. Now audiences need both their national and international media to understand their world.”

Mr Sambrook noted that the Internet enabled every media organisation, no matter how small, to reach a global audience. “Indeed this opportunity to debate and engage with people of similar interests wherever they live means there is only international media now,” he added.

The two-day International Radio Forum is being hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in conjunction with its ninth International Radio Festival.

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU)  is co-organiser of the conference which attracted 700 delegates, of whom more than 150 are from overseas.

(Source: ABU)