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Junket? You decide

  • Richard Sambrook
  • 24 Jan 07, 06:50 PM

Word reaches me from London that the Evening Standard has favoured me with a picture and a news story suggesting I am leading a 成人快手 delegation on a "junket" to a ski resort at the licence fee payers expense.

They are, of course, entitled to their view, but let me put a few points on the record. My return economy flight cost 100 pounds, I am staying in a 2 star hotel - the cheapest available here (as are all 成人快手 staff) and although it's true half that cost is covered by the 成人快手's public funding, the other half is covered by the commercial revenue of 成人快手 World - the advertising supported international news channel we run which has no public funding of any kind.

Like our competitiors CNN, CNBC and Al Jazeera we believe it's important the CEO is here to make contacts and promote the channel . And while discussions here are not at the heart of the Evening Standard's news agenda - they are at ours. The Standard presumably believes a successful global business can be run without ever leaving the country. It can't.

As for the other 成人快手 staff here at the World Economic Forum, they are all, I can vouch, working extremely long hours serving 成人快手 World, 成人快手 News24, 成人快手1 and 成人快手2, Radio 4, Radio 5Live, the World Service and more. A junket? I don't think so, but you decide. Comments welcome.

Comments   Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 07:22 PM on 24 Jan 2007,
  • Sugandh wrote:

Sitting in mumbai have been reading up lot of stuff about bbc in Economist and in Guardian.
My verdict, it is not a junket.
But, why do we not get to see all the 成人快手 programs here in india? probably that can solve your problem of license.

How extraordinarily pompous this post is.

"The Standard presumably believes a successful global business can be run without ever leaving the country"

I doubt the Standard thinks quite that. Perhaps the Standard thinks that 成人快手 World thinking it is vital for its "global business" interests to hobnob with a bunch of major corporate leaders and world politicians is displaying, well, more than a little hubris. I wonder how many representatives from the 成人快手 are in Nairobi right now?

  • 3.
  • At 11:37 PM on 24 Jan 2007,
  • richard sambrook wrote:

Ben - you are right, that part did sound a bit pompous. Apologies! I just don't think it's a sensible criticism by the Standard. To be fair, I don't think I quite said it was "vital to hob nob" either. We are reporting the Social Forum in Nairobi. We don't have to fly people there from London as we have a bureaux in the city. Best, Richard

  • 4.
  • At 08:11 AM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • copperbtmrosanquet wrote:

Children i want you to stop this right now! No more point scoreing, you are all as good and as bad as one another.

  • 5.
  • At 08:39 AM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • christopher martin wrote:

Same old problem.Ofcourse there should be a 成人快手 presence,it's an
important event.But how many programmes being represented individually by how many staff.
I thought with the centalisation
of news gathering some time ago we'd
got over this silliness.Especially
against a background of below inflation funding

  • 6.
  • At 08:50 AM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Mathew Reid wrote:

Please,
Do the public have rights over the 成人快手 or not. Does the fact that the 成人快手 make money ensure that the organisation is now out of the public interest. Seperating the budgets into two accounts gives you license to do as you like. The 成人快手 needs to be 100% accountable to the public that built it up from nothing and have supported it over the years. This appears from what you say to be a valuable trip. Although I'm sure that you are aware of the need for the public to be checking on what the public purse is being worked on.

Ben,
The 成人快手 World Service (Monitoring) has an 'East Africa Unit' based in Nairobi.

  • 8.
  • At 09:46 AM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Mark wrote:

Richard - this annual meeting is very important. It is where the biggest ideas get discussed by people with the power to take action (whatever we think of them). I'm glad the 成人快手 is there reporting. I don't want to see the World through only a US media lens. Cheap shot by the Standard; ignore it.

  • 9.
  • At 10:11 AM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Richard Heath wrote:

Richard - I think you have "a bureau" in Nairobi, not "a bureaux". Tut tut.

  • 10.
  • At 10:31 AM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Chris Townsend wrote:

Travelling in Economy? I shudder at the thought. Perhaps, like Prince Charles, you can put it down to the loss of the Empire. What's a 2-star hotel like though? Do you have to take your own soap? Have you got your own bathroom?

In all seriousness, I am all for projecting a positive, powerful image of Britain abroad and I don't think the representatives of what is, after all, one of the most visible expressions of Britishness are exempt from that. Personally I'd support you if you'd stayed somewhere a little more comfortable, even at my expense as a licence fee payer. You represent me as a Brit, I want you to look presentable in the morning, not like you had to queue for the showers with a load of sweaty Australian backpackers.

Don't worry about the Evening Standard; it's just another organ of the Daily Mail and we all know what that organisation thinks about the 成人快手. They are hardly impartial. Besides, as hacks on what is, after all, only London's local rag, they're probably just jealous that they don't get to go to international events like this. Would you be in a tizz if the Evening Chronicle in Newcastle, or the Evening Times in Glasgow, decided to have a go? Of course not. Don't sweat it.

  • 11.
  • At 11:10 AM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Rob wrote:

Considering the massive propaganda campaign against low cost flights that the 成人快手 is currently leading, should you be flying to Switzerland at all?

There is a concerted and sustained attack on cheap flights in all 成人快手 output (Radio, TV and Website). Why don't you practice what you preach? Or much better still, stop pushing your own left-wing, interventionist, elitist agenda and let the rest of Britain enjoy our city breaks and foreign holidays?

I hope people remember this hypocrisy the next time they see some of your blatant propaganda.


  • 12.
  • At 11:42 AM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • wrote:

Mike, Richard (Heath) -- just to let you know that the 成人快手 does in fact have several different parts of its international business operating in Nairobi -- 成人快手 News, 成人快手 Monitoring, 成人快手 World Service and, from time-to-time, the 成人快手 World Service Trust (our international charity), out of more than one office in the city, but sharing where possible.

成人快手 Monitoring and 成人快手 World Service are separate parts of 成人快手 Global News division. 成人快手 News is a different division, but does share one of the offices with others.

I think this will be why Richard (Sambrook) used the term 'bureaux'.

Hope that clarifies.

  • 13.
  • At 11:59 AM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Chloe wrote:

It would be nice for the anti-Daily Mail brigade who have posted here to explain their support for this 'junket' when the 成人快手 is supposed to be fronting environmentally friendly policies!.

Ipersonally, I think that this is typical left wing attitudes coming through, if the 成人快手 is queried about anything then you (PC brigade) rush to the defence of the 成人快手, however, I remember last week you were all complaining about Prince Charles and David Cameron, yet you forgot to raise issue with Millband going to Delhi with 4 aides for a 1 day meeting!.

Double standards at the 成人快手 seem to be normal policy and as for the PC brigade, why don't you all try and understand that the majority of British people don't like you and are sick to death of your left views being rammed down our throats.

  • 14.
  • At 02:13 PM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Geoff Thomas wrote:

Forget the cheap air-fare. Why are you in India every eight weeks (and presumably elsewhere every other week), when we seem to have at least five other 成人快手 reporters there who could do the job.

  • 15.
  • At 02:44 PM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Jonathan wrote:

If the World Economic Forum is important enough for Tony Blair, Angela Merkel, Kofi Annan, Jack Straw, Gordon Brown etc etc to go to, then it's important that the event is covered properly - by reputable organisations such as the 成人快手.

  • 16.
  • At 03:10 PM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Mary McCannon wrote:

Dear Richard,
Hope you don't mind if I correct you. 成人快手 World has a hidden public funding: I have to pay 拢13.- per month to the cable TV service provider in Hungary to have access to 成人快手 World. I guess the 成人快手 gets a chunk of it in this or that way. But I do not mind you and the whole 成人快手-team being out there as long as I have up-to-date news and analisys on TV, on air and online.
Best regards to all, Mary

  • 17.
  • At 03:57 PM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • wrote:

I'm somewhat split on this.

I understand the need for a corporate trip away - often vital for boosting team morale, and a neutral venue does usually allow people a more relaxed place to put forward ideas or opinions they may not feel like saying in the office. I also understand the meeting of colleagues from other companies and maintaining contacts and making new ones.

But why take the plane? The 成人快手 has, quite rightly in my opinion, been at the forefront of warning people about the effects of global warming and how cheap flights are not helping the environmental struggle. Surely there's a train you can get to Switzerland? I seem to remember Top Gear showing that it could be done - even though it was slower than a car.

  • 18.
  • At 04:50 PM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • wrote:

Richard, I'm afraid you haven't really got to grips with the level of ignorance here.

So, to make it crystal clear, when 成人快手 staff attend something called the 'World Economic Forum', they are covering a news event, not engaging in an internal corporate jamboree, as some here seem to think.

  • 19.
  • At 08:41 PM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Virginia wrote:

Dear Richard, what a sneaky man you are, nowhere in your blog do you make it clear how many of your colleagues are going with you, well fear not I can oblige...the number is 71, 71 成人快手 staff going to cover this conference!. ITV are sending 3, SKY are sending 4 and Channel 4 well they are sending 0, so Richard please explain to me again what on earth requires 71 成人快手 people to go en-masse?.
Also perhaps you could explain why we the payer of your 'junket' have to fork up 50,000 pounds from our collective tax to accommodate your jolly?.

  • 20.
  • At 09:37 PM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • Mark wrote:

The question really boils down to what did you obtain or could reasonably have expected to obtain on your trip which was of genuine value to your audience which could not have been obtained by staying home in London. How much it cost or which source of the Corporation's revenues took the accounting hit for it is besides the point. People on business trips have a right to expect a reasonable level of personal comfort comparable to what they are accostomed to at home but not extravagance. Only you and your managers can answer these questions to those ratepayers and sponsors who are ultimately forced to foot the bill. I hope you do.

  • 21.
  • At 11:01 PM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • anon wrote:

"The Standard presumably believes a successful global business can be run without ever leaving the country. It can't."

Yes it can. Ask any rich American. Also, the 成人快手 is not a business. It is funded by a compulsory licence fee instead of voluntary payments.

  • 22.
  • At 11:04 PM on 25 Jan 2007,
  • JG wrote:

ITN sends 3 people, Sky sends 5 and the 成人快手 sends 37!!! Spending 拢50,000, and you are defending this? Shakes head.

  • 23.
  • At 01:22 PM on 26 Jan 2007,
  • Andrew wrote:

The 成人快手 should definitely be there, no question. In that respect it is not a junket but a part of the day job.

That said, good points have been raised about how manty arms of the 成人快手 have to be there. Can't the same folks do pieces to camera and pieces to radio. And the perhaps, somewhat radically, write something for the web. Multi-tasking. Too much to ask?

  • 24.
  • At 03:04 PM on 26 Jan 2007,
  • wrote:

The 成人快手 is everywhere - it is simply the best news feed in the world. I am one of the few that don't have a television so I am not in a position to complain but Economic Summits need to be covered and it is refreshing to learn that journalists have access. Now if they should ski as well as taking party drinks then that is good.
I don't suppose for one moment that work life balance gets a look in. I would like to say thank you.

  • 25.
  • At 10:52 AM on 28 Jan 2007,
  • Ken Franklin wrote:

It is amusing to read this as the 成人快手 reports complaints about Prince Charles flying to America. Perhaps no one should ever leave their own country - those explorers have a lot to answer for!

Maybe the 成人快手 should consider having fewer parts to their business, thereby reducing the need to send so many around the world.

  • 26.
  • At 03:29 AM on 29 Jan 2007,
  • wrote:

Junket is an irrelevant word for Journalists.

  • 27.
  • At 10:44 AM on 29 Jan 2007,
  • Alex Kirby wrote:

Andrew asks whether multi-tasking is too much to ask of 成人快手 reporters. No, it isn't - I've spent days doing TV, radio and online pieces on a story, with no time for meals. No complaints: that's what the job sometimes demands. What's far more serious is the reduction - or removal, sometimes - of the chance to check a story properly, or even to think about it.

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