Peter, a security guard, approached us in the BBC Piazza.  Perhaps we were looking at things too closely, but after talking a little he realized that I was just trying to decipher the different artwork around the plaza.  We had just finished a morning coffee in a cafe in Broadcasting House.  We were with Albana, one of my former Tirana University Journalism students. Albana has been working at the Beeb for more than 20 years and for the last decade has been a producer for the English Language service in the unit that produces Weekend and Newshour.

Peter saw we were interested in the George Orwell statue that stands in front of New Broadcasting House.  “If liberty means anything at all it is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”  It is from the preface of his novella “Animal Farm.”  Peter told me that the statue had been controversial.  Orwell had been with the BBC during World War II and the Orwell Society wanted to place his statue in front of New Broadcasting House.  Mark Thompson, BBC’s Director General, didn’t like the idea, he thought Orwell (Real name Eric Blair) was too left wing.

Or perhaps it was because Orwell had said some not so complementary things about the Beeb when he left, like working there was like working in an institution that was half way between a girl’s school and a lunatic asylum.  (That is what he said publicly, privately he reportedly said a cross between a whoreshop and a lunatic asylum.)  While he felt that the BBC was “relatively truthful” compared with other media he was numbed by the bureaucracy and the jargon, which was the inspiration for “new speak” in his novel 1984.  His statue looks toward a window in Broadcasting House.  It is on the first floor above an entrance on the ground floor.  His office was in room 101.  If you remember his dystopian novel, 1984, room 101 was the psychological torture chamber where prisoners were forced to face their worst fears.

I can see why Mark Thompson did not want Orwell gracing New Broadcasting House.  Some literary critics thought putting Orwell in front of the BBC was an insult to Orwell.  But the Orwell Society, public opinion, and Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, prevailed so Orwell and the BBC are linked even though neither may have been too happy about it.   

On this trip to London we met both Albana, who works producing news for the BBC and Julia, who works in planning.  Julia was a colleague when we both were working with Radio B92 in Belgrade during the Yugoslav wars of secession.  After Milosevic fell she and her husband, Dusan, both worked for the BBC, Dusan heading the Serbian language service until he passed away.

We talked about current pressures at the BBC.  Albana talks about the need to turn out more news quickly and to include video to make it work not only for radio but online.  It is exhausting and means that they do not do as much time for in-depth reporting.  But the fact that she still can do some keeps her there.  On this day she was getting ready to talk with a Ukraine soldier who was wounded and became a poet.  The World Service has moved from its historic location at Bush House on the Strand to New Broadcasting House.  Domestic and International news are now operating from the same unit and the need to satisfy two different listenerships adds complexity to the work.  (I just had to walk past Bush House for old times sake.)

With the demise of both the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty the BBC is the only independent radio outlet with global reach that has the reporting depth to cover the world.  That puts an added responsibility on the Beeb, a global responsibility the people in planning have to deal with.  And deal with without added funds.

But back to Peter.  He said one of his joys was to see Lyse Ducet, BBC’s Chief International Correspondent walking into the building, back safely from another assignment.  But some do not come back.  On the roof of New Broadcasting House sits a transparent glass cone.  The title of the work is “Breathing” by Jaume Plensa.  It is dedicated to the BBC journalists, technicians and fixers killed while covering stories.  It has a poem:

life turns and turns on the crystal glass

breathing in our body

silence is a voice, our voice

silence is a body, our body

life turns and turns on the crystal glass

breathing in our body

I invite you to breathe

I invite you to listen to the silence

Every night at 10 PM when the BBC News comes on the cone sends a beacon of light skyward 3000 feet, connecting the building to the heavens.  The beacon turns off when the news is over.