25th February 2010
Question Time to have all-female audience
By Vicky Shaw, Press Association Media Correspondent
An all-female audience will grill politicians on Question Time for the first time in the show's 30-year history.
The special BBC1 show will take place on March 11 in Dewsbury in Yorkshire and will follow the same format with questions from the audience on topical subjects, the BBC said.
The episode will fall during International Women's Week.
The panel will not be all-female and broadcaster and expert gardener Monty Don is the first confirmed guest. Ceri Goddard, chief executive of equality campaigning group the Fawcett Society, said it "commends the BBC's important decision to hold a Question Time with an audience made up entirely of women, during International Women's Week.
"The Fawcett Society believes, and has said to the BBC, that as a public service broadcaster they play a vital role in ensuring women are properly heard in political debates and can hold politicians to account."
The show will also air in the same week that the society will launch a coalition campaign of women's and equality organisations called What About Women?
Ms Goddard said: "There's no such thing as a 'bloc vote' of women. But the political parties' consideration of women in their policy development falls well short of our expectations. On all the big issues from the economy, to crime, to support for families, politicians often fail to consider or fail to explain what the impact of these decisions will be on women - and often they are starkly different from their impact on men.
"We look forward to women being able to grill politicians on all the big issues, and look forward to politicians being made to account for how their policies affect women."
5th February 2010
Diversity: The Creative Opportunity
A free workshop event to inspire TV and digital media producers to make the most of the creative opportunities presented by including more diverse elements in the content of their projects.
Friday 5th March, 11.00 - 1330
Scottish Screen, Glasgow
Download the details here
25th November 2009
Industry luminaries and politicians pledge their support to Inaugural CDN Diversity Awards
Gordon Brown, David Cameron and leading Broadcasting industry figures lent their support to the Cultural Diversity Network (CDN) tonight; recording messages for the show-reel that opened the inaugural CDN Diversity Awards.
The CDN Diversity Awards were set up this year to celebrate and promote excellence in diverse creative output in the TV sector. The ceremony took place at Channel 4, and was hosted by Alan Carr, with Gok Wan and The Wire’s Idris Elba among those presenting awards.
In interviews recorded for the show-reel, Gordon Brown and David Cameron praised the awards, and the CDN Diversity Pledge, which was set in April this year.
See the winners and read the full press release.
8th October 2009
Pact, BBC, Channel 4 Appoint Diversity Advisor
Pact, the BBC and Channel 4 have appointed Angela Chan to the newly created role of diversity adviser. The appointment is a key part of Pact, Channel 4 and the BBC's strategy to boost diversity in the production sector by helping production companies achieve their diversity goals and deliver the commitments in the recently-launched CDN Diversity Pledge.
As diversity adviser, Angela will be available for all production companies across the UK to provide bespoke advice and support on developing their approach to diversity, ranging from recruitment of staff, crews and other off-camera talent, to casting, through to developing company diversity policies and training. She will work across all aspects of diversity, including cultural and ethnic diversity, disability, gender, age and social class. She will work closely with Pact and the BBC and Channel 4, as well as other broadcasters belonging to the CDN.
Until taking up the diversity adviser post, Angela worked as a freelance diverse talent consultant for BBC Vision, where she helped to spot production and presenter talent from diverse backgrounds who could work at the BBC. She combines experience of working for both the BBC and Channel 4 (where she was deputy commissioning editor, news and current affairs) with considerable experience in the independent production sector, where she has worked as executive producer for Eleven Film, Keo Films and Firefly Film & Television.
Bella Lambourne, director of HR at Endemol and the diversity representative on Pact council, said: "Pact is confident Angela will provide excellent support for production companies as they sign up to the CDN Pledge and develop their diversity policies. It is crucial to the success of this initiative that it is supported by commissioners and so we are delighted that Channel 4 and the BBC are providing financial and strategic support."
Helen Blenkinsop, Managing Editor of BBC Vision Commissioning said, "Reflecting diversity both on and off-screen is hugely important for the BBC. This post is a great step forward, to help companies develop their own plans and pledges, as well as working with broadcasters to help us deliver our ambitions. Angela is a tremendously positive force to drive this agenda forward across the industry."
Channel 4's head of diversity Oona King said: "Programme makers don't wake up in the morning and think 'how can we keep under-represented groups off our TV screens?' But it happens. At Channel 4 diversity is written into our DNA so we naturally want our production partners to get the advice they need to promote change. Angela's wide-ranging experience means she's perfectly suited to take up this exciting role and turn fine words into great outcomes and great TV."
Angela Chan said: "I'm delighted to have the opportunity to support the independent sector in this role and act as a champion for diverse talent in the industry. The CDN pledge represents a real chance for companies to find new ways of engaging with diversity that will push creative boundaries, attract wider audiences and, ultimately, win business."
CDN Steering Group Meeting: A Summary
8th September 2009 - Sixth meeting of the CDN in 2009 held at Channel 4 Horseferry Road
Members represented at the meeting: Channel 4, BBC, PACT, Sky, BAFTA, ITV, MTV
Items discussed:
- CEO review meeting. A discussion around the agenda items to be discussed at the CEO meeting on 15th September.
- CDN Awards event. Following on from a productive sub-group meeting, further details of the awards event were discussed. This included finalising the award titles and how the judging process would be structured.
- CDN Pledge. A brief update on the signatories to the pledge and which companies are yet to sign up.
- Cross-industry diversity monitoring. Cumberbatch Research Group has been commissioned to pilot a research project in diversity monitoring across the output from most of the CDN membership. The aim is to develop a standard for monitoring diversity that will be taken up by the rest of the industry.
- CDN communications plan. A draft version of a Communications plan was presented to the group for comments and suggestions. Two priorities for the plan were to start building a stakeholder list and develop a quarterly newsletter.
- 2010 mentoring scheme. An overview of the applications received from both mentors and mentees so far. Members were encouraged to continue advertising the scheme.
- Next meeting. 3rd December 2009
The CDN Senior Mentoring Scheme 2010
It doesn't take a genius to tell you that black and minority ethnic groups are currently under-represented at senior levels within the UK broadcast industry. Not a situation that anyone wants to continue, which is why Sky, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, ITN, MTV/Viacom, Virgin Media Television, Turner, BAFTA, Skillset and PACT have come together to form the Cultural Diversity Network (CDN).
A key initiative for the CDN is this industry-wide senior mentoring scheme. Its goal is to provide the support, encouragement and guidance that talented people need to reach senior commissioning or programming positions. Specifically, the programme's been designed to focus on four areas:
- Overcoming barriers to progress
- Developing confidence
- Enhancing skills
- Looking at ways to take career, educational and professional development forward
To find out more about the mentoring scheme, full eligibility criteria and an application form, click the banner below.
CDN Steering Group Meeting: A Summary
7th July 2009 - Fifth meeting of the CDN in 2009 held at Channel 4 Horseferry Road
Members represented at the meeting: BBC, ITN, Channel 4, Five, MTV, Virgin Media TV, Turner, PACT, Endemol and Juniper
Items discussed:
- REACH role model project. Presentation by Jo Taylor and Alex Beresford. REACH is a government sponsored programme for black boys and young black men, supporting and inspiring them to raise their aspirations, attainment and achievement. Discussion as to how CDN members might get involved. Visit the REACH website for more information.
- CDN Diversity Pledge. Update on pledge signatories to date and actions they are undertaking. 50 companies signed up so far. Discussion on responses to the pledge and plans for a Pledge recognition event later in the year.
- Pact Diversity Advisor. Finalising details for the appointment of a new diversity advisor to help companies signing up to the pledge. Appointment to be advertised the following week.
- CDN Communications Plan. Discussion around developing a formal PR/comms plan for the CDN to improve external communication of the work of the group. As a start it was agreed to publish a summary of the CDN meetings and current activities on the website.
- CDN Mentoring Scheme. Following the success of the 2008/9 scheme, the group discussed the launch of the 2009/2010 Senior Mentoring scheme. All members were encouraged to look for potential candidates and the CDN was keen that a significant number of these should be outside London. Closing date for applications was agreed to be the end of September 2009.
- CDN News Event. It was agreed that ITN/ITV will organise a CDN event in the Autumn to focus specifically on Diversity in the News. Sir Trevor Macdonald had already agreed to take part.
- Next meeting 8th September 2009
Cultural Diversity Network launches new cross broadcaster initiative to promote Diversity
A new CDN cross broadcaster Diversity Pledge was launched at two events in London and Manchester on the 23rd April 2009.
The Pledge aims to help both independent production, post production and other supplier companies and in house producers take measureable steps to improve diversity in the Industry.
This is the first time the CDN, including BBC, ITV, Sky, C4, Five, Turner, MTV Networks and Virgin Media Television, has signed up to an initiative of this kind. The pledge was created in partnership with Pact, and supported by the BCIDN (Broadcasting and Creative Industries Disability Network). The CDN will monitor the diversity practices of the independent production companies they work with, as well as in house producers, in real and quantifiable ways.
Click on the links below to see related articles and press releases:
- CDN Press release
- CDN North Press release
- Articles in Broadcast
