After 30 years at the BBC, Richard Sambrook, its director of global news, is departing for a project 'outside journalism'


The BBC's director of global news, Richard Sambrook, is to leave the corporation after 30 years.

Sambrook, who has held several senior positions in the BBC's news and sport divisions, said he was leaving to pursue a project "outside of journalism".

He will leave early next year and will be succeeded by Peter Horrocks, who will combine being director of global news with his current job as director of the BBC World Service.

Sambrook moved to the global news division from his previous job as director of BBC News in 2004, in the wake of the Hutton report, which led to the departures of director general Greg Dyke and chairman Gavyn Davies.

As director of news he had been one of the key players in the BBC's Iraq war dossier row with Tony Blair's Labour government, which following the death of ministry of defence scientist David Kelly led to the setting up of the Hutton inquiry.

"The BBC is not an easy organisation to leave – there are few places which are as creative, as woven into the fabric of national life, and which can provide as many opportunities and privileges as the BBC," said Sambrook. "However, 2010 will mark 30 years in BBC journalism for me – and it's time to go."

Horrocks, the former head of the BBC's multimedia newsroom who took over at the World Service in April, said the fusing of his job with the global news role would "necessarily mean some organisational changes which we will decide in the new year".

The global news division includes the BBC's international news services across radio, television and online, including BBC World television and BBC World Service radio, which is funded by a parliamentary grant-in-aid.

A three-yearly strategic review of the division's operations and output is under way ahead of its next funding settlement with foreign office.

Sambrook said he had overseen a five-year strategy that included the launch of "Arabic TV, Persian TV, investment in the web and interactivity, the relaunch and strengthening of BBC World News and BBC.Com and significant growth in our online and mobile reach".

"Currently, audience figures for our international journalism are as high as they have ever been as a consequence of taking the hard choices that lay behind that strategy More than that, the BBC's commitment to strong independent journalism, which I have been proud to develop, support and defend, remains important across the world," he added.

However, earlier this year the BBC shelved plans for new TV services targeted at south-east Asia and parts of Africa because of the tough financial climate. "To have impact in journalism you have to be in television," said Sambrook in April. "[But] we have to be realistic. We are unlikely to get a significant increase in funding."

Sambrook will join the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford as a visiting fellow for the first part of next year before taking up a role in the commercial sector outside broadcasting and journalism.

He was the BBC's director of news at the time of Andrew Gilligan's controversial Iraq Dossier report on Radio 4's Today programme in May 2003 about the government's presentation of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in the build-up to the Iraq war.

He shouldered much of the flak for the "defective" editorial processes blamed by Lord Hutton's 2004 report for escalating the row prompted by Gilligan's report between the BBC and the government over the Iraq dossier.

Sambrook's move to the global news division later that same year was seen by some to be a direct result of the criticism in the Hutton report, but he and the BBC said the move was unrelated.

The deputy director general, Mark Byford, described Sambrook as an "absolutely brilliant colleague". "His integrity, huge passion for great journalism and deep interest in new media and its impact, together with his warmth, wisdom and loyalty, have been truly inspiring to us all," Byford said.

Sambrook joined the BBC as a radio subeditor in 1980 and spent his entire career in the corporation's news operation, apart from a stint as acting director of BBC Sport in 2000, including a period head of newsgathering for four years from 1996.

Horrocks said it was a "great privilege" to succeed Sambrook. "Richard has forged Global News into a successful operation. I intend to build on his work by ensuring that Global News combines together, along with our colleagues across the BBC, to achieve our shared aims.

"Fusing the Director roles of Global News and World Service will necessarily mean some organisational changes which we will decide in the new year."

By John Plunkett

Source:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/30/richard-sambrook-leave-bbc