Category: World Service
Date: 20.10.2005
Printable version
91Èȱ¬ World Service launches a new programmeÌýthis month (on 31 October)Ìýaimed at bringing people world-wide together in stimulating conversation about anything that interests them.
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World Have Your Say will be on the air five days a week with its editor, Mark Sandell, promising: "We'll make global conversation real. It's a news programme dealing in opinion, debate and comment. If you don't have an opinion, you will have by the end of the programme. And if you do have an opinion, expect it to be challenged.
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"Listeners can interact with the programme by phone, email or via its website. We will - as far as possible - be guided by the audience on topics discussed - with the presenter being the 'conductor' - getting everyone around our virtual table talking to each other."
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Anu Anand, already familiar to listeners of The World Today on the World Service, will present the new programme three times a week.
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She was born in India, but raised in the southern United States, studying at the University of North Carolina.
Her first job at an Indian news agency paid just one rupee per word, but it was enough to see her snapped up by Associated Press Television as a producer, where she covered the death of Mother Theresa and India's nuclear tests.
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She joined The World Today in 1999 as a presenter and has covered post-war Iraq, Congressional and Presidential elections in the US (including anchoring the results programme) and the tension in Kashmir.
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Anu has also worked for the World Service as a Delhi correspondent (where she covered the Tsunami from the Andaman and Nicobar islands) - demonstrating her skills as a good reporter who brings her experience to the microphone.
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Steve Richards, who will present the programme for the rest of the week, is Chief Political Commentator for the Independent newspaper and writes a weekly column.
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He's no stranger to the 91Èȱ¬ - spending five successful years in the early Nineties as a Political Correspondent. He was the New Statesman's political editor between 1996 and 2000 before joining the Independent and Independent on Sunday.
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He has continued to work as a presenter - anchoring GMTV's Sunday Programme - and has fronted documentaries on Channel 4 as well as being a regular host of a light-hearted quiz show on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4.
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Steve's most recent series, Look Back At Power on 91Èȱ¬ Radio, was described by one national newspaper (The Daily Telegraph) as "useful, in telling you about the way Government has been run since 1997, and rather beautiful, in being so elegantly structured it answers the questions you, sitting listening, are just getting ready to ask" - which sounds like an excellent qualification for World Have Your Say.
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World Have Your Say will be launched on the World Service on 31 October - being broadcast five days a week at 6.00pm GMT to all regions.
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Notes to Editors
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The World Service is an international radio and online broadcaster delivering programmes and services in 43 languages. Ìý
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It reaches 149m listeners globally via SW, AM, FM, digital satellite and cable channels. Ìý
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It has more than 2,000 partner radio stations which take 91Èȱ¬ content, and numerous partnerships supplying content to mobile phones. Ìý
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Its international online sites include audio and visual content and offer users opportunities to interact directly with world events.
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They receive over 330m page impressions a month.
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