Oliver Luft writing in the Press Gazette, May 26, www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45500&c=1
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Roger Bolton, veteran presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Feedback show, has called on the BBC to appoint a religion editor to reverse a “key weakness” in the corporation’s output. He rounded on BBC television for its lack of religious programming, saying it seemed to be in the hands of “the secular and sceptical, who view religious coverage as a rather tiresome obligation to be minimised rather than a rich and promising area to explore”. While praising the recent appointment of commissioning editor of religion, Aaqil Ahmed, Bolton was doubtful of the impact he could have.
“I believe BBC news requires a religion editor, able to appear on the networks to interpret the latest religious story at home and abroad, but more importantly to bring a religious perspective to the vast range of areas such as foreign affairs and medical dilemmas where that perspective is so often, and so bafflingly, absent, both on air and behind the scenes in internal editorial discussions.”