BBC fast tracks senior managers

THE BBC has fewer senior staff from ethnic minorities now than four years ago, figures in Broadcast magazine show.

Only 4.3 per cent of management are from minority backgrounds, about 40 out of 1000 senior executives, Broadcast said.

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Interview: Take cover, it’s “the comedy assassin”

NINIA BENJAMIN is one of the UK’s hottest female comedians having worked her way up from “a job at Woolies” to becoming an in-demand stage personality and live comedy stand-up. Ninia was catapulted to stardom in the BBC3 hit comedy show 3 Non-Blondes. Ninia also showed another hidden talent – hairdresser – when she was crowned the Winner of Celebrity Scissorhands 2007, where she and a host of celebrities cut and styled their way through two weeks in a televised salon, raising thousands of pounds for Children in Need.

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Not a laughing matter

BBC COMEDY executive Lucy Lumsden has admitted it is ‘incredibly difficult’ for women and those from ethnic minorities to break into TV comedy. She says that most of the sitcoms pitched to her are ‘white and male-led’ – and that she wanted to encourage more diversity in the scripts.

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Government’s £3m ethnic agency account re-think

One of the biggest annual marketing and advertising budgets for ethnic-minority focused agencies is up for renewal again.

The government’s Central Office of Information (COI) spends around £3 million every year with agencies that specialise in communicating with non-white communities in the UK. The money is almost always spent with one of the preferred agencies on its roster.

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