Latest news with #TimDavie
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Iran escalating persecution of Persian staff and relatives, BBC says
The BBC has again accused Iran of escalating a campaign of intimidation against its Persian journalists and increasingly targeting the relatives of staff inside the country. The British broadcaster said on Monday that its BBC Persian journalists were witnessing "a disturbing rise in the persecution of their family members". People had endured random interrogations, travel bans, passport confiscations and asset seizure threats, it said. Staff - both in the UK and elsewhere - had not been able to return to Iran, and had also been directly targeted with violence and threats aimed at pressuring them to abandon their work, the BBC said. "We call on the Iranian authorities to immediately cease this campaign of intimidation," the BBC's director general Tim Davie said in a statement on Monday. Tehran is yet to respond to the latest allegations from the BBC. The Iranian regime has previously been accused of conducting unlawful operations against journalists abroad. It has denied those allegations and accused the BBC of spreading false information to encourage its overthrow. BBC News Persian reaches a weekly global audience of almost 22 million people, including around 13 million in Iran, where the service is banned. The BBC has previously said that the Iranian regime has targeted its Persian language journalists covering the country over the past decade - prompting the broadcaster to lodge urgent complaints with the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 and again in 2022. But there had been a "significant and increasingly alarming escalation" recently, the BBC said on Monday. "In addition to enduring personal security threats from Iranian state actors operating beyond Iran's borders, BBC News Persian journalists are now witnessing a disturbing rise in the persecution of their family members inside Iran," said BBC Director-General Tim Davie. "This persecution is a direct assault on press freedom and human rights. It must end now." The broadcaster said it was preparing a fresh complaint to the UN. The UN's secretary general and its special rapporteurs have previously raised concerns about Iran's treatment of BBC staff and warned that harassment, surveillance and death threats violated international human rights law.
BBC News
10 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
BBC accuses Iran of escalating persecution of Persian staff and relatives
The BBC has again accused Iran of escalating a campaign of intimidation against its Persian journalists and increasingly targeting the relatives of staff inside the British broadcaster said on Monday that its BBC Persian journalists were witnessing "a disturbing rise in the persecution of their family members".People had endured random interrogations, travel bans, passport confiscations and asset seizure threats, it - both in the UK and elsewhere - had not been able to return to Iran, and had also been directly targeted with violence and threats aimed at pressuring them to abandon their work, the BBC said. "We call on the Iranian authorities to immediately cease this campaign of intimidation," the BBC's director general Tim Davie said in a statement on is yet to respond to the latest allegations from the BBC. The Iranian regime has previously been accused of conducting unlawful operations against journalists has denied those allegations and accused the BBC of spreading false information to encourage its News Persian reaches a weekly global audience of almost 22 million people, including around 13 million in Iran, where the service is BBC has previously said that the Iranian regime has targeted its Persian language journalists covering the country over the past decade - prompting the broadcaster to lodge urgent complaints with the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 and again in there had been a "significant and increasingly alarming escalation" recently, the BBC said on Monday."In addition to enduring personal security threats from Iranian state actors operating beyond Iran's borders, BBC News Persian journalists are now witnessing a disturbing rise in the persecution of their family members inside Iran," said BBC Director-General Tim Davie."This persecution is a direct assault on press freedom and human rights. It must end now."The broadcaster said it was preparing a fresh complaint to the UN. The UN's secretary general and its special rapporteurs have previously raised concerns about Iran's treatment of BBC staff and warned that harassment, surveillance and death threats violated international human rights law.
The Herald Scotland
18 hours ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
The BBC is failing in its obligations to Scotland. Holyrood take note
After 100 years of existence BBC Scotland lacks the ability to make its own programmes; cannot identify and train local people (two Controllers in a row from outside Scotland) and certainly does not represent or reflect the history, culture and lives of Scots past and present. BBC Scotland totally fails to meet the criteria of a national broadcaster, and Tim Davie's recent speech ("BBC's Tim Davie to call for 'bold collective choice to take on the trust crisis'", heraldscotland, May 13) had nothing of relevance for Scotland. Holyrood should examine the options for Scottish broadcasting, because giving our money to the BBC has failed us. GR Weir, Ochiltree. Don't blame police officers I would like to congratulate your correspondent G McKenzie on a rather excellent letter (May 30) commenting on Calum Steele's not so excellent article about policing, or rather the lack of it in Scotland ("Shocking: young police officers are being badly let down by their leaders", The Herald, May 30). I normally agree with Mr Steele's observations on the wide range of topics he discusses in his column in The Herald. He is rather lucky to have such a platform. However, on this occasion he appears to blame serving officers for all the operational ills of the failed concept that is Police Scotland. The blame for this mess is most certainly not serving officers but without any doubt, the responsibility of the politicians who created the national force. We are told the creation of Police Scotland was to take advantage of 'economies of scale'. What utter nonsense. A before and after cost analysis I think would be very interesting. Political control was the real reason. Prior to the creation of the national force on April 1, 2013, I concluded in a letter to The Herald: 'As a society we are sleepwalking into a situation that is not in our best interests.' I fear we are now living the nightmare I am truly heart sorry for those officers burdened with the responsibility of operating a largely failed system. Dan Edgar, Rothesay. Read more letters Parenting then and now Like Doug Maughan (Letters, May 30) I was brought up on a council estate where many big families produced kids who went on to great careers as engineers, doctors, headmasters, scientists, tradesmen and politicians (Alex Salmond), virtually all of them doing better than their parents. There were, however, a number of differences in those days: there was good, cheap council housing in good neighbourhoods, work was often within walking, cycling or cheap bus fare distance so a car wasn't an unaffordable necessity, a family could survive with one breadwinner and one parent staying at home, the education system was reputedly the best in the world and further education was genuinely free with means-tested grants. Hardly any families got, needed or expected state benefits. And contraception wasn't as easily available or reliable. Contrast that with today. Housing costs at least twice as much in real terms so both parents have to work, requiring childcare costs of £75 per day until the age of three and less time being spent with kids in the evening – and that's if there are two parents around. The education system has fallen down the pan, further ruined by by pupil violence, and further education involves the colossal costs of accommodation and loans to be paid back for, in many cases, useless degrees. The result is most couples either don't have, delay having or only have one or two children because that's all they can afford financially and in quality time spent with them, which is exactly what my two kids and their spouses have done with my four grandchildren. Child benefit worth £3,455 per year doesn't even touch the sides of the issue, and in terms of declining population I thought one of the objectives of net legal immigration of several thousand was supposed to solve that? As an aside, in my case, I was adopted as an only child. When I was 43 I found out my single-parent birth mother and my sister had pretty sad lives and I definitely benefited from the policy in the 1950s and 60s of illegitimate babes being adopted as opposed to facing a life of poverty with a single mum as happens today. Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven. Heat pumps can be good value Ian Moir (Letters, May 30) compares the unit prices of electricity and gas and concludes that heat pumps could never be as economical as gas boilers. It's not quite that simple. A unit of electricity costs about four times that of the gas equivalent. A heat pump, however, can produce between three to four times the heat per kilowatt of electricity depending on the installation and the property itself. An existing gas boiler is never 100% efficient; older models can be as low as 70% efficient. Comparing a super-efficient heat pump with an inefficient gas boiler, therefore, means the running costs are broadly the same. A heat pump is, of course, more expensive to buy than a new gas boiler. Hence both the Holyrood and Westminster governments are offering generous grants to make the transition easier. Home Energy Scotland offers a £7,500 grant and optional £7,500 interest-free top-up loan for anyone considering such a move. What's not to like? Jeff Rogers, Banchory. A heat pump being installed at a domestic property (Image: Getty) Brighten up our buildings I heartily concur with Bryan Marley (Letters, May 30), but it's not only Glasgow that's drab; the whole country is. Our buildings could be brightened with a little colour here and there, without the need for planning permission. Councils and private owners could, for example, apply small roundels to bleak façades and gable-ends, to break up the surfaces. Yet the brutalism persists; the latest instance near me in Dunfermline is the new Fife College, whose architect must have studied in North Korea. George Morton, Rosyth.
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
End of your aerial? New Freeview rival could soon offer a better way to watch TV
Freeview could soon be under pressure from a new rival that doesn't need an aerial. It's hard to argue that Freeview still rules the roost when it comes to watching TV without paying a monthly fee. This totally free platform features over 100 channels, which are all available via a standard aerial on your roof. Millions of homes across the UK now rely on Freeview for their nightly fix of entertainment but its days could well be numbered. More of us are now moving away from traditional methods of watching content and switching over to streaming instead. Sky recently confirmed that its Stream box and Glass TV - which receive live shows, sports and movies via an internet connection - are now its biggest sellers and now there's another way to tune into the telly. Freely, which is actually owned by the same team as Freeview, first launched last year and is slowly improving with more manufacturers including it in their screens and new features being added on a regular basis. It even recently received a boost which now offers a backwards TV guide which lets you find things to watch that have been previously aired. It's a smart system that's clearly getting a lot of investment, and now there could be an even bigger reason to consider ditching Freeview and that aerial that wobbles around on your chimney. It's recently been revealed that a Freely may soon start making a dedicated set-top box. For those not in the know, the only way to currently access this streaming service is to buy a brand new television with it pre-installed. Another issue is that some manufactures - such as LG and Samsung - haven't yet joined the Freely revolution and don't offer any screens with it installed. If a standalone set-top box arrived, it would fix these problems and make it seem far more enticing. Explaining more about the future, BBC 's Tim Davie recently said: "At the BBC we have been working hard to build digital platforms and content to meet changing audience needs, enriching our offer and welcoming the possibilities of a post broadcast world. "We think now is the time to confirm an IP switchover in the 2030s, setting out the conditions and providing certainty to ensure success. "The BBC can play a key role in innovating to ensure that the new world is inclusive and accessible. "To help, we want to double down on Freely as a universal free service to deliver live TV over broadband. And we are considering a streaming media device with Freely capabilities built in, with a radically simplified user interface specifically designed to help those yet to benefit from IP services." TiVo also recently hinted that they could also bring a Freely-powered set-top box to the UK in the future. This update would be a direct rival for Sky Stream, which also turns old TVS into fully smart content hubs. We don't have full details just yet, but watch this space.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Shamed Strictly star Wynne Evans claimed 'rotten' BBC was a 'corrupt organisation' just days before he was sacked over sex-pest furore
In the days leading up to his axing from the BBC, Wynne Evans waged war against the broadcaster branding it 'rotten to the core' and a 'corrupt organisation', The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The Welsh opera singer, 53, was informed on Thursday that his rolling contract at Radio Wales had been terminated after a four-month investigation into his behaviour at the corporation. But the Go Compare frontman had already launched an attack on the BBC on his Facebook page, flooding his comment section with hate messages painting the broadcaster as 'villains'. A well-placed source inside the Beeb told the MoS: 'He's his own worst enemy. If only he had put a sock in it, things could have been very different, but he just can't help himself. He suffers from a severe case of verbal diarrhoea.' It was also learned the 'nail in the coffin' for the BBC investigation was when a video emerged in April revealing Evans sent a sex toy to his co-star, Jamie Borthwick, as part of an ill-judged joke. The investigation was launched after the MoS caught him on video in January at the Strictly tour using the vile sexual slur 'spit roast' – a three-way sex act – in relation to his co-star, Janette Manrara. It was announced on Friday that the presenter had been axed and a BBC spokesman confirmed: 'He is not returning to his mid-morning show and there are currently no plans to work with him.' But earlier in the week Evans was bizarrely bashing the BBC and its director general, Tim Davie, in the comments of his Facebook page. On Tuesday, the opera star insisted he had been 'misrepresented' and urged his supporters to email Mr Davie and argue his case. He went on to say Radio Wales was a 'corrupt organisation' and said: 'Not sure they know how to apologise.' Evans branded BBC employees 'villains' and on Monday said: 'I can't see myself back at the BBC. But I'll let you know where I go.' In the wake of his scandal, Evans sought the employment of crisis PR guru Mark Borkowski. Sources told the MoS: 'He only lasted three days.' I exposed 'spit roast' comment - it led to barrage of hate mail By Dolly Busby When I started filming Wynne Evans at the press launch for the Strictly Come Dancing live tour in Birmingham four months ago, I had no idea of the furore it would cause. But I've no regrets. On that day, the Welsh opera singer, known as the jovial star of the Go Compare adverts, was in a mood. 'Lies! All you print are lies, lies, lies,' he shouted to one female journalist. Much had been written about his behaviour by then already, following accusations he'd inappropriately touched his Strictly dance partner Katya Jones months earlier. Wynne was far from the jocular personality that made him so popular. I don't know what it was – call it journalistic instinct – but I sensed something was going to happen. So I began to film. Minutes later, he turned to his co-star, EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick, and shockingly suggested a 'spit roast', aimed at Janette Manrara, the host of Strictly's spin-off show. Janette and Strictly's female cast had no choice but to stay silent and keep smiling for the cameras. But I had no such obligation – and was determined to expose Wynne's vile behaviour on their behalf. When The Mail on Sunday confronted him ahead of publishing the story, he issued a formal apology, but later turned on me in a four-month campaign to trash my reputation as a journalist. He claimed this newspaper doctored the video and I took 'spit roast' out of context. He assured fans: 'The truth will come out.' When I exposed him last month for giving a 'surprise' performance at a women's charity, he unleashed his trolls on me, turning my email inbox into a barrage of hate messages. So when the axe finally fell on his BBC career on Friday, I felt vindicated. The truth did come out – and I was right.
