Press Releases

From Monday 25 May, the Director of BBC World Service, Peter Horrocks, will be in Sierra Leone and Nigeria to meet with audiences and listen to their comments about BBC's programmes.

During the six-day tour, he will meet with political and spiritual leaders, journalists, business partners and the BBC audiences from the two West African countries.

In Sierra Leone, Horrocks will visit the Amputee Camp in Freetown, hold meetings with the country's Vice-President, Samuel Sam-Sumana, and the leader of the opposition, John Oponjo Benjamin.

He will also meet with several rebroadcasting radio partners including Radio Democracy and Capital Radio in Freetown.

On Tuesday 26 May, at a special "town hall" meeting at the British Council in Freetown, Horrocks will speak with an invited audience of around 300, to discuss the BBC's role and place in the region's media landscape.

He will take questions from the audience, and via sms from the listeners of the BBC's interactive English-language programme, Network Africa.

The discussion will be broadcast via the BBC's partner radio stations across the country, on BBC 94.3 FM in Freetown, BBC 94.5 FM in Bo and BBC 95.3 FM in Kenema.

In Nigeria, Peter Horrocks will meet with Abuja's Minister of State, Alhaji Adamu Aleiro, and the city's other leaders and luminaries, the Governor of Kano, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, and the Emir of Ringim, His Excellency Alhaji Abubakar Mahmoud Sayyadi Ringim.

An interview with Horrocks will also be broadcast by long-standing BBC radio partner, Raypower FM.

On Thursday 28 May, Horrocks will attend a BBC Hausa live debate titled 10 Years Of Democracy In Nigeria: What Challenges Still Remain?

Held at Kano's famous "Mumbaya House" – the Centre for Democratic Research and Training of Bayero University – the debate will form part of the 10 Years Of Democracy programme season on BBC Hausa, commemorating a decade of uninterrupted civilian rule in Nigeria and assessing the country's democratic journey so far.

Peter Horrocks will then attend the recording of the BBC's interactive English-language programme, Africa Have Your Say, and take questions from the audience.

The event, broadcast on BBC Hausa, will also be covered by the local radio and television.

Peter Horrocks says: "The BBC's impact in Sierra Leone and Nigeria is substantial. We have a high level of audience loyalty, and the feedback we are getting is amazing.

"One of the most important messages we are getting from our audiences is that our news coverage creates a sense of belonging to a bigger world and facilitates understanding in this interdependent world.

"As journalists, we are equally dependent on our audiences who in many ways shape our content with issues that matter to them. I'm really looking forward to speaking with a wide cross-section of people during my trip.

"I want to listen to their ideas and exchange views and, most importantly, I want to experience, first-hand, what our audiences think about the World Service and the programming we offer."

BBC World Service is a leading broadcaster in Sierra Leone and a primary source of news and information. More than half of the population of Freetown tune in to the BBC every week.

Nigeria has BBC World Service's largest radio audience, with 24.4 million people listening to BBC programmes in Hausa and English every week.

BBC websites outperform other leading online international and domestic news outlets in the country, and Nigeria is consistently in the top three countries worldwide in terms of traffic to the bbc.com mobile news site.

BBC World Service Publicity