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MUMBAI:
Ceri Thomas has been announced as the new head of programmes
for BBC News.
Ceri
will take on the new role from 18 March. He takes over from
Stephen Mitchell, who is leaving the BBC.
News
Programmes brings together all the major daily and weekly
current affairs output, investigative journalism and major
interview programmes including Panorama, Today and Newsnight.
The department also includes services focused on distinctive
audiences, including Radio 5 Live news programmes and Asian
Network news as well as BBC Radio 1 news programmes such as
Newsbeat.
The
department is a journalistic powerhouse for the kind of original
journalism which distinguishes the BBC from its competitors.
Interviews and original journalism are shared across News
adding value for audiences by bringing exceptional expertise
together to find and break more news stories.
Ceri
said, "So much of the heart and soul of BBC News lives
in this department. It's full of variety and ambition and
endeavour. It's where we take risks - calculated editorial
risks, but risks all the same - and it's vital that we don't
stop taking them. It's an enormous privilege and a huge challenge
to take on the job of running it."
BBC
director of news Helen Boaden said, "Ceri brings outstanding
experience of running one of our highest profile daily Current
Affairs programmes, Today, which he has brilliantly modernised
while building new relationships across the BBC. He is passionately
committed to delivering courageous, challenging current affairs
journalism on all platforms and is one of the most creative
thinkers in BBC News.”
Ceri
started his broadcasting career in 1989 as a producer of AM
at LBC Radio. He then joined the Today programme as a junior
producer in 1991, progressing to Assistant Editor under Roger
Mosey from 1995.
Ceri
then moved to Radio 5 Live as Breakfast Editor and eventually
to Head of News for the station. He spent a year at Harvard
University as a Nieman Fellow and, on returning, took on the
new role of Radio Newsgathering Editor, taking the lead in
strengthening the relationship between Newsgathering and Radio
News and reviewing and re-organising Radio News' own reporting
base.
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