Interview with a BBC Journalist

Written by:

Maxine Yao, Year 12

A few weeks ago, the Winston Editorial Team were privileged enough to conduct an interview with BBC world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge. Since having joined BBC News in April 1970, Wooldridge has risen through the ranks, from BBC’s East Africa correspondent, to Religious Affairs correspondent, to South Asia correspondent and finally to his present position as a BBC world affairs correspondent. In the space of over 50 years of experience of working with the BBC, Wooldridge has covered several significant events such as General Franco’s death in 1975 and the 1980 African civil wars, to the more recent 1999 Kargil District conflict in India. Wooldridge has also interviewed famous persons such as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. Here, we give you the gist of how the interview went.

Home – Setting the Scene

Q: Have you ever felt disoriented, travelling from place to place?

A: I do and have felt disoriented, especially during times when I finish stories in emotionally charged places such as South Africa, more especially, during the 1980 apartheid. I have witnessed people, thought to be informers, attacked by crowds with a technique called “necklacing,” where people throw a tire filled with petrol around the person and set light to it, which would kill the person off in 20 minutes. At other times, crowds would throw rocks at suspected informers. I saw these people die just a few feet away. Leaving South Africa and returning to Britain, felt different; it was definitely a difficult transition to make.

Q: What was it like raising your family while travelling to all these places?

A: I would say that all three of my children have gained hugely from being schooled, for the large part, in Africa and Delhi. My wife, a VSO volunteer nurse involved in palliative care for the terminally ill in Uganda at the time, was up for the travelling. My whole family has even evolved an interest in helping others as a result of my constant travelling and exposure to different countries. There is a new phrase in BBC “Live the story,” which relates to us, BBC correspondents. We are based in other countries often with family and see society through our family’s eyes.

Q: How can you describe Mr. Simon Wooldridge (BSM CAS Coordinator) as a son?

A: It’s great that he’s so enthusiastic about his job. He was a teacher in Botswana, and then he became an aid worker, worked with refugees and worked as a deminer (removing land mines from an area). Now, he’s in Manila in a school environment, working in your community. All the jobs he has done involve being amiable, and I believe he is. I think he cares about people and wants to allow them to fulfill their potential. I think it’s fair for me to say that he’s great around kids!

What it’s like to be a BBC journalist

Q: Have you ever experienced culture shock? I heard, for example, that post-apartheid, there was great tension that arose from different ideas of what was right. White people, for instance, thought looking at the person you talk and talking quietly is respectful and refined; Black Africans apparently prefer not to look someone in the eye when speaking to them, and speak very loudly, because they believe speaking quietly is a sign of disrespect. Can you relate to this?

A: Since I was brought up in Dorset, a rural part of Britain, South Africa was the first country I had ever gone to outside Europe. My experience in Uganda exposed me to extreme poverty and allowed me to marvel at how resilient people are. Considering the traumatic circumstances people have been in, I sometimes think, “Am I right to be pursuing this interview? Am I being unfair to the individual?” There are some interviews where I have to ask whether it’s okay to go on – especially if it’s a deeply personal topic – and there have been many times I have had to stop in the middle of an interview.

Q: How do you prepare for an interview?

A: Depends on the time available, which is often constrained, as journalism is a last-minute business. However, if you do have time, you can use the Internet and sites where you can get authoritative information such as the International Crisis Group, Chatham House and Brookings Institution. The most essential aspects during an interview are to listen carefully and get as many names in the newspaper as you can (every name sells one copy). One of the definitions of news is that “News is what people don’t want you to hear; anything else is lying.” As an interviewer, I think you should know when to interrupt, ask questions and challenge.

Q: I know you’ve interviewed many eminent personalities, but whom would you say stood out the most for you?

A: I had the opportunity of interview the Dalai Lama in North India several times. One of the things I hadn’t realized about him until I met him face to face was that he has a wonderful sense of humor, and a disarming chuckle, talking about things that have happened to his people and future challenges he will face in China and Tibet. That’s the thing about interviewing people; you find out something new every single time.

Written by:

Maxine Yao, Year 12

Related Items News