Category: BBC
Date: 15.06.2006
Printable version
The BBC won half of the 20 awards at The Commission for Racial Equality's
annual Race in Media Awards last night, and took the prestigious Media
Organisation of the Year prize for the second year running.
The Media Organisation of the Year award recognises the organisation the judges
feel made a significant contribution to public appreciation and
understanding of race relations, integration and diversity in Britain.
This is
the second year that this award has taken place.
The BBC's also won awards in the television, radio and online categories.
BBC London News Special Correspondent Kurt Barling and Executive Editor Michael
MacFarlane were winners of the Television News Award for an overall body of work.
BBC TWO's Race - Changing Attitudes, a programme aimed at secondary school
pupils and examining issues of identity and racism, took the Youth
award.
The Television Drama award went to BBC ONE's Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee, a
serial based on the best selling novel by Meera Syal.
The BBC picked up the Film Documentary award for Who do you think you're talking
to?, in which Norwich Union call-centre workers in Bangalore and
Norwich swapped jobs, changing their perspectives forever.
The BBC Asian Network picked up the Broadcast Soap award for Silver
Street, a radio soap that weaves topical world events into characters' lives.
BBC Radio 4 won the Radio Drama award for Exiled from Paradise, a
contemporary tale based on the true stories of the people of Diego Garcia who in the Seventies were removed from their British-owned island to make way
for a United States naval base.
The Radio News award went to BBC Radio Five Live for the Breakfast Hamza Viyana
interviews, which investigated why four apparently unremarkable young men
brought carnage to London in July 2005.
The programme's investigation was carried out with the help of Hamza Viyana, a 22-year-old Muslim from Leicester.
BBC Radio Leicester won the Radio Factual award for Rupal's Ugandan Journey, an
emotional documentary in which Rupal Rajan travels back to her birthplace in
Uganda to tell the story of how Dictator Idi Amin gave Asians three weeks to
leave the country.
The New Media award, sponsored by the BBC this year, went to
bbc.co.uk/worldclass.
BBC World Class encourages UK schools to twin with
schools around the world - an initiative that challenges racial and cultural
stereotypes and enables understanding between young people in the UK and around
the world.
Mark Thompson, BBC Director-General, said: "This is a BBC achievement that makes
me particularly proud, because it reflects our total commitment as an
organisation to delivering content that an increasingly diverse UK population
can enjoy.
"People rightly expect and demand programmes and services from us that
reflect their lives and passions.
"These awards across television, radio and
online are recognition that we have a strong base from which to work as we move
forward with Creative Future."
Notes to Editors
On 6 June 2006 BBC Television announced the appointment of an Editorial Executive of Diversity (Mary FitzPatrick) to oversee the way BBC channels represent the audiences they serve.
BBC Press Office
