ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Francesca Unsworth

Chair

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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Media Action is using professionalism and skills built on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ values to help tackle some of development’s biggest challenges.

As a journalist, I am passionately committed to the role of media and communication in helping people access timely, reliable and useful information. In an increasingly noisy media world, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Media Action is using professionalism and skills built on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ values to help tackle some of development’s biggest challenges. Through its debate shows holding leaders to account, through its dramas encouraging safer birth, and in its work to provide information in the aftermath of emergencies, the charity is delivering critical work to help people in need.

I spent my entire career at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, starting in local radio in Bristol and then Leicester after graduating from The University of Manchester. I went on to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 1's Newsbeat and then ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4’s The World at One and PMIn 1990, for nearly a year I covered the Gulf crisis and Gulf War while assigned to Washington DC as a ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ network radio producer. In 2000, I became Head of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Political Programmes overseeing political news coverage and television and radio programmes and in January 2005, I was appointed Head of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Newsgathering. The department is the heart of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News, providing live coverage and reports to all radio, television and multimedia news outlets.

In December 2014, I became Director of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service Group where I was responsible for the editorial and managerial direction of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World News Television Channel, international online news services in English, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Monitoring Service and ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Media Action, where I assumed the role of Chair. Although I retired from my role as Director in January 2022, I am delighted to be continuing as Chair of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Media Action.

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