Over To You

Rajan Datar talks to Andrew Whitehead, the head of news and current affairs for the World Service, about the recent Assignment programme which alleged that money donated for famine relief in Ethiopia during the 1980s was used to buy arms.

The programme has come under attack from some listeners, from aid agencies, and from the campaigner Bob Geldof. In the light of these criticisms, Rajan asks Andrew Whitehead whether he regrets broadcasting the programme.

And there is news of a pilot scheme that incorporates material from blogs all over the world into the BBC’s online news coverage; Rajan finds out what benefits this might have for news reports.

Update 4 November 2010: The Assignment programme featured was the subject of a complaint by the Band Aid Trust, upheld by the BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit