Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú

This week on Over To You, we take a look behind the scenes at some of the challenges faced by reporters covering news events under difficult circumstances.

One area of the world that is particularly hazardous at the moment is the Thai capital, Bangkok. Since the middle of March, between government supporters - the so-called Yellow Shirts - and the opposition Red Shirts, who support the former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006.

Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú correspondent Vaudine England paints a fascinating picture for us, as you can hear in this week's programme.

Thai residents glance at members of the Thai military as they stand guard on central Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road after red shirt protesters attempted to enter the residence of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. (Getty Images)

She describes how difficult it is to find out what's actually going on - made harder because of all the various rumours that are circulating from the two sides and all the different factions within them.

But add to that the problems of personal security - not helped by the location of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú office in the middle of the area occupied by the Red Shirts - and the fact that both sides in the conflict think organisations like the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú are biased towards the other side - and you begin to get some idea of how tricky the life of a foreign correspondent can sometimes be.

Story Story

We also find out about the drama serial "Story Story", which is broadcast every week across Africa on the English network.

Eric Taylor, a listener in Accra in Ghana, emailed us to ask why a story about Nigerians going about their daily lifeÌý - and speaking in what he describes as "impenetrable local accents" - should be broadcast across the whole continent.

So, as you can hear, Rajan has been talking to Linda Nwoke, who's country manager in Nigeria for the World Service Trust, which is responsible for the programme. She explained to him about the work of the Trust in promoting good governance, among other things, which, according to her evidence, can be done very effectively through drama.

The Trust does similar things in other parts of the world, so if you are a fan, either of Story Story, or of similar broadcasts in other regions, we'd be interested to know whether you agree.

Cathy Packe is the Producer, Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

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• - What's this?

"Whose broadcasting corporation is it anyway?"

That's the question posed this week by British ex-pat listener Richard Ahearn who lives in California, and it's a recurring theme in the Over To You inbox. Richard feels there isn't enough news about Britain on the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service.

This is particularly pertinent as the UK gears itself up for one of the most unpredictable general elections in a long while. The introduction of three live broadcast debates between the three main party leaders has added some badly-needed spice to the campaign.

But another listener, Noel Holburn, is disgruntled about how the first debate was covered by the World Service. He wanted to hear the whole hour and a half of the head-to-head bout - not "sound bites and expert opinion".

Well, I took the points made by Noel and Richard - and the many other expats who have contacted us over the years - to the Deputy Director of English Networks, Anne Koch. I asked her whether the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is failing its expat audience.

You can hear her stout defence, as well as some insights into how the World Service assesses its priorities - and indeed regards its audience - on the programme this week.

And we want your views on this matter. If you are not an expat - and the vast majority of listeners are not - do you want extra weight placed on British news and culture?Ìý Or is this an anachronistic approach to broadcasting in a multi-media, highly competitive age? As Anne points out, if you want to hear the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's domestic output you can do it over the internet if you have the resources

Are you a witness?

Also this week we look at a fascinating history series, introduced last autumn, called Witness.

Rather than rely on expert analysis of major cultural and political events, the programme is appealing to YOU to tell your story.

This week, for instance, the programme hears from a Brazilian civil engineer about his memories of helping to construct his country's capital, Brasilia.Ìý And there are other fascinating testimonies on the Witness website that you can listen to.

So if you have ever been involved in something significant, do contact the programme team and offer them your story.

And, as series editor Kirsty Reid tells us, they are especially keen to hear from you if you have experiences of the Chinese Cultural Revolution or Indian Partition.

So, to answer the question at the beginning of this blog, as posed by listener Richard Ahearn: "whose broadcasting service is it anyway?" - it's yours. Or at least it could be if you get in touch with this programme and its unique take on history.

Just as it is when you contact Over To You with your views.

Rajan Datar is the presenter, Over To You

Picture credit: Getty Images.

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

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By Penny Vine

Living in Britain - during an election campaign as we are now - I find it difficult to imagine what it would be like only to have a monopoly state-run radio and television with no outlet for independent voices. But in Zimbabwe - there is only state-run broadcasting.

A Zimbabwe Media Commission has been appointed and last month declared its intention to promote and protect the media - and of course - the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is now allowed to send its reporters openly into the country. Does this mean a new era of media freedom may be getting closer? Not according to Rajan's guest this week, Gerry Jackson. She's the station manager and founder of SW Radio Africa, a UK-based radio station staffed by exiled Zimbabwean journalists. She thinks no real progress will be made as long as Robert Mugabe remains in power.

And radio listeners in Somalia have also had a raw deal this week. Not only have many stations stopped broadcasting music on their airwaves because an Islamist group , but already, five of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's FM relays in Southern Somalia have been closed down by a different Islamist group, Al-Shabab. We have a response from the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service's Head of Africa region Jerry Timmins on the show.

Also on the programme this week, we hear from Guy Thornton - a listener in the Netherlands - who had queries about the World Service website. He wasn't the only one to spot that our podcast hadn't been available last weekend. Apologies! It's there now.

We spoke to Susie Goldring, the Editor of the World Service website, who responded to Guy and told us about plans to improve the schedules and documentaries sections of the website. Below she explains more about the forthcoming changes and improvements.

Improving World Service Programme Information Online By Susie Goldring

Over the last few months, we've been looking at redeveloping the How and When to Listen Index on the World Service website. In particular, we want to make the information as clear as possible - so that it's easier for listeners to find out when a particular programme is on and how they can listen to it.

We know that it's difficult for listeners to find out when a programme is being broadcast and the scheduling information itself can be quite disorientating. The World Service schedules are dependent both on the way you choose to listen - whether you are listening via FM radio, DAB radio, online or satellite for instance - and where you are listening from. So, a user wanting to find out what programmes are being broadcast in Accra via FM radio for example, will be offered a different schedule to someone wanting to find out when a programme is on in Brussels, via satellite.

We're going to be launching the updated How and When to Listen Index at the end of May, which will make programme schedule information clearer to the listener, as well as more information about the different ways you can listen to the World Service from where you are.

Another development we are currently working on is redesigning our Documentaries Index. We often receive emails from listeners saying that they only heard part of a documentary on-air and want to listen to it again online. Our documentaries are currently listed by their title in alphabetical order - however with names such as Shed Men and Return to Trebizond - it means that if you don't know the title of the documentary, it can prove challenging to find it again online. We're now going to be tagging and grouping our documentaries by topics so you are able to find them more easily under issues like 'health', 'politics' and 'religion' - this will also make them easier to find across the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú website as a whole.

Finally I'm pleased to say that the World Service website has received a for our podcast service. With over five million downloads per month, the World Service English and language podcasts are some of the most popular across the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, so it's great to see this reflected by the industry's most prestigious award. If you're a fan of our podcasts you too can vote via the site.

Penny Vine is the producer of Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

• Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
• Subscribe to the podcast
• Send the team your feedback by email (overtoyou@bbc.co.uk), telephone (44 144 960 9000), SMS (447786 202006) or by leaving comments on this blog.
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By Rajan Datar

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has announced the date of the country's general election. The chattering classes here are all of a Twitter but of how much interest is it to the rest of the world - and indeed World Service listeners outside the UK?

That's the question we pose this week to two language service chiefs and the editor of Focus on Africa. The gist of their response is it's the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's job to find angles and stories so the political situation in the UK becomes even more gripping and relevant to their listeners!

One view expressed by the head of the Vietnamese service, is that it is the British Broadcasting Corporation you are all listening to, so of course you'll be interested and of course the language sections will take the opportunity of their presence in the UK to cover the election thoroughly. And I'd be interested to know if any of you dissent from this position? Let us know - post a comment to this blog.

Joseph Warungu the editor of Focus on Africa, reflects on his role providing occasional reports on how the British 'do' elections. As a veteran of two American presidential campaigns and several African elections, he casts a wry look at the similarities and differences between a UK poll and the others he's covered. As he told us, people in Africa are particularly interested in issues such as the expenses scandal which has led the British public to question whether their politicians are as honest as they could be. Joseph says "I was speaking to a lot of people in Africa who said aha these are the people who tell us how to do it! Ah, now let's see how they get themselves out of this mess. You think Africans are corrupt, you need to watch Westminster!"

As Britain's politicians hit the campaign trail, we also hear this week about a different kind of journey as the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Hindi service completes three weeks of on-the-ground reports on the effects of the construction of brand new roads across India. The Highways Minister Kamal Nath has announced plans to build 20 kms of roads a day from June 2010. A team of five Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú journalists have travelled over 2,500 kms to speak to people who will be affected by this new infrastructure.

Incidentally, as a footnote to our interview with Amit Baruah, the head of the Hindi service, I was gratified to learn that Amit was so keen to appear on Over To You, he fitted us in before heading off directly to the Indian Prime Minister's office!

Rajan Datar is the presenter of Over To You

Over To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service and its programmes. It airs at 00:40, 03:40 and 12:40 every Sunday (GMT).

• Listen to previous episodes of Over To You
• Subscribe to the podcast
• Send the team your feedback by email (overtoyou@bbc.co.uk), telephone (44 144 960 9000), SMS (447786 202006) or by leaving comments on this blog.
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The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's reputation is based on its journalism and reputation for accuracy.Ìý But in this week's programme we hear about the strange case of the mining disaster in Sierra Leone which made headline news on the Focus on Africa programme on 19th March but which was .

Focus on Africa's Editor, Joseph Warungu, explains how the Focus team were tipped off about the story by their local reporter based in the town of Bo.The local police chief there confirmed that he'd also had reports of an accident in which as many as 200 people were unaccounted for and he'd sent out a team of 30 to investigate.

The scene of the reported accident was very remote and only reachable via extremely bad roads, made worse by the monsoon season. The local reporter had checked with the Mining and Mineral Resources ministry and heard that the minister was making his way to the scene.

Joseph says that in situations like this, it's hard to get to the facts and that the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú has to trust its reporters on the ground. He talks about the different sources of information available in such areas and says that ideally, the reporter should get an eye-witness view.

However in this case, the local reporter was arrested as a result of his broadcast, detained overnight and refused entry to the mining area to check what the facts actually were.

Joseph says his programme has to strike a balance between cautious fact-checking with the authorities (who in some African countries may wish to prevent information from emerging) and the breaking of important news.

Where do you think the line should be drawn? Is it better to make the occasional mistake or wait - perhaps for days or weeks - for the full story to become clear?

Being British

Also in Over to You this week, we hear what one of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Hausa service's producers,Ìý Jameel Yushua, has made of his travels round England this week for the World Today.

Together with presenter Komla Dumor, he's been heading up the M1 Motorway in England, calling in at Luton, Leicester and Leeds, asking different communities what makes them tick and trying to find out what it means to be English.

Schedule changes

We also explore one of the recent changes to the schedules.

Evening Report, a programme about South Asia from South Asia has been cancelled. In its place is an edition of World Briefing which will be co-anchored in London and Delhi.

This South Asia-leaning World Briefing can also be heard in Australia, East Africa, Europe and the Middle East, plus on the Internet.Ìý

What do you make of this programme? Are you interested to "eavesdrop" on the stories viewed with a South Asian twist? Should the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service do more of this kind of thing?

Penny Vine is the Producer, Over To You

ÌýOver To You is your chance to have your say about the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service andÌýits programmes. It airs at 10:40 and 23:40 every Saturday, and atÌý02:40 on Sunday (GMT).Ìý

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