The death of George Floyd in late May and the global reckoning with racism it provoked
was one of the most seismic events of the last decade. For TV journalists, the Black
Lives Matter movement posed a number of challenging questions. Can news organisations
truly reflect the experiences of our increasingly diverse population when many don’t reflect
that diversity themselves? Did the recent furore over the BBC’s use of the N-word in a
news report show an industry still out of touch with the feelings of the black community?
An industry that is supposed to hold a mirror to society found it had to scrutinise itself, while
doing justice to a story of enormous global importance, in the middle of a pandemic. Katie
Razzall chairs a panel of journalists to explore issues of race, diversity, impartiality, and
responsible reporting in an age of social and political earthquakes.