MUMBAI: The BBC Academy has further expanded its global outreach, adding content in five languages. Free resources, dedicated to journalism and language use in Bangla, Kyrgyz, Somali, Spanish and Ukrainian, are now live with mobile-first new design (in the first iteration of the sites) – bringing the total number of BBC Academy’s non-English-language sites to 23.
The BBC Academy puts skills development at the heart of the BBC, supporting its mission to inform, educate and entertain. Through a wide portfolio of staff training, it develops skills enabling it to meet the challenges of an ever-changing media world. BBC World Service delivers news content around the world, on radio, TV and digital, reaching a weekly audience of 246 million.
Academy International Sites editor Najiba Kasraee says: “Language and journalism are inseparable. It’s important to provide journalists not only with skills training but also to make them aware of the importance of observing language standards that have been honed by BBC journalists, based on our guidelines of unbiased, accurate and fair reporting.”
The new websites, which offer content in three main categories - Language, Skills and Standards - provide a guide to the BBC’s editorial principles and core values. Journalists will find language tools that ensure standards such as impartiality and accuracy are maintained as they translate materials or create and deliver original content.
Covering a wide range of multimedia skills - television, radio and digital production – the sites focus on presentation, writing, and use of social media. A special focus is given to helping journalists produce and present under pressure of tight deadlines.
The new content adds to sites for BBC journalism in Arabic, Burmese, Chinese in simplified form, Chinese in traditional form, French, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Pashto, Persian, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu, Uzbek and Vietnamese. This development is in line with BBC Academy’s pledge to provide support for all of the BBC World Service languages – including the new language services that will start delivering content as part of BBC World Service’s expansion.
The sites are available via the BBC Academy International Language Sites and can be accessed via homepages of respective BBC World Service languages websites.
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