BBC still as far as we know has a gender and identity correspondent since 2018
Sample quote from the G&I Correspondent describing standard descriptive sex based terms for sexuality as ‘micro aggressions’ (!)
‘...when you speak to a woman in Burundi and she uses the term homosexual or lesbian because it doesn’t matter to her as much as the woman sitting in London who is much more savvy to all these terms as a micro aggression, you have to reflect that in the reporting by using her language. Language that someone in the West who discusses gender and identity in a very academic way may find problematic. That is really hard because you want to please everyone when you’re doing stories about the underrepresented.’
society.ipsos-mori.com/reporting-identity-an-interview-with-megha-mohan/
Her day in the life interview
www.journoresources.org.uk/megha-mohan-the-bbcs-gender-and-identity-correspondent/
I have no criticism of Megha Mohan personally, jobs a job in journalism and I can imagine it’s really horrible, frankly, working as a woman and as a woman from an ethnic minority at the BBC world service. In this specific Gender and Identity role the cognitive dissonance when you travel around the world meeting women in difficult circumstances for sex-based reasons and as a woman with personal experience of sexism and (I’d imagine from other journalists’ anecdotal experiences but don’t want to presume individually) racism- it must be very hard to handle.
I think like Hunte’s role they've been given a brief which shows the BBC’s complete confusion around this whole area- or maybe like the rest of society, the BBC is made up of gender believers and gender critical people and people who’ve never thought about this and the BBC haven’t taken the time to make a clear policy. Which is not good enough.
Just look how the Press Gazette reporting describes the creation of the new role which shows the BBC’s absolute confusion around sex and gender. According to the Ipsos Mori article, the Gender and Identity role was was ‘designed to allow in-depth, specialist reporting around areas such as faith, ethnicity, sexuality, and LGBT+ experiences across the globe.’ So nothing to do with women as a sex but everything to do with gender identity. And to do this in a global context shows a massive imposition of a highly privileged individualist specific political lens on to the objective reporting required of the role.
If you look at the Press Gazette reporting of it : www.pressgazette.co.uk/bbc-world-service-appoints-first-specialist-gender-and-identity-reporter/
‘The BBC has appointed its first gender and identity reporter as part of its recent expansion of the World Service. Mohan, who is currently a senior journalist with BBC Stories, will join a specialist unit within BBC World Service in September and look in-depth at issues including LGBT+ experiences, faith and ethnicity. A BBC spokesperson said: “The specialist role will cover stories about gender and identity which could be around people’s faith, ethnicity, sexuality and LGBT+ experiences across the globe.’
‘“We know that gender and identity issues are of great interest, particularly to our younger audiences around the world, and this role will be dedicated to reporting on them. “The role will be part of a specialist unit within the BBC World Service making leading investigative, exploratory journalism that contextualises the themes and issues behind news stories and presents them in exciting ways for our global audience to interact with.”’
‘Announcing her appointment on Twitter, Mohan said she was “thrilled” to take on the role and thanked the “brilliant women” journalists who provided her with support during the application process.
She has previously written stories which may come under the gender and identity brief, including about her personal experience of being unable to mourn her grandmother in a Hindu temple with the rest of her family because she was forbidden to do so while she was on her period.
Mohan is also a co-founder of The Second Source, a scheme set up by female journalists to match young women with more experienced mentors and help them in the early years of their media careers.’
‘The BBC denied reports that the creation of the gender and identity reporter related in any way to its ongoing gender pay gap and equal pay issues. The corporation’s 12 highest stars are all men, according to the BBC’s annual report released earlier this month.
It came soon after former BBC China editor Carrie Gracie secured an apology from the corporation in which it admitted she had been underpaid compared to other male international editors.’
Disclaimer: Personally I love and value the BBC as a vital cultural institution and news source, obviously it’s not perfect. It has some serious flaws but long may it continue to be funded by the licence payer because the commercial alternatives for quality and balance of programming are MUCH, MUCH worse. I know we would be out of the frying pan into the fire.
BUT that whole set of messages as quoted above underlines to me how beleaguered, confused, and regressive disguised as progressive the current BBC top brass are. So I have every sympathy for the journalists trying to tread an impossible and shifting line in their beat. Also I really can’t imagine how a global audience for BBC reporting will feel that their experiences are being reflected back to them when the whole emphasis is always on ‘gender’ and not ‘sex’.
There isn’t a BBC women’s correspondent, is there?