We are pleased to announce that Peter Horrocks, director of BBC World Service, will give one of the 2011 festival keynote speeches.
BBC World Service delivers programmes and services in 32 languages on television, radio and new media to a global audience of at least 182 million every week. Since April 2009, he has been responsible for the overall editorial leadership and management of the world’s leading international multimedia broadcaster.
He is also Deputy Director of the BBC Global News division which brings together BBC World Service, the BBC World News television channel, the BBC’s international facing-online news services, BBC Monitoring, and BBC World Service Trust – the BBC’s international development charity.
He has worked for the BBC since 1981. He has held senior management and editorial posts in television, radio and online, all with a strong emphasis on the BBC’s journalism. Before taking up his current post, Peter Horrocks had previously been Head of TV News from September 2005 until BBC News went multimedia in November 2007. At that time he became Head of the BBC’s Multi Media Newsroom until taking up his current post. He had also been the BBC’s Head of Current Affairs.
Peter joined the BBC in October 1981 as a news trainee. He went on to work for Newsnight as an assistant producer and then producer. After working as a senior producer, intake editor and output editor on Breakfast Time (now Breakfast), he became deputy editor of Panorama in 1988. In 1992, Peter edited the BBC’s television election night results programme. He also edited BBC TV’s coverage of the Budget, by-elections and local elections. Peter edited the 1994 European Election results programme and the General Election results programme in May 1997. In May 1992, Peter was appointed editor of BBC Two’s social affairs programme, Public Eye, a position he held until January 1994 when he launched Here And Now, the BBC’s popular current affairs magazine programme. Peter became Editor of Newsnight in April 1994 and left to take up the position of Editor, Panorama in December 1997. He was appointed Head of Current Affairs in June 2000. Since then he has been executive producer of Brits, True Spies, Smallpox 2002, The Day Britain Stopped, Dirty War and The Power Of Nightmares.
Peter won BAFTA awards in 1997 and 2005 for his editorship of Newsnight and for The Power Of Nightmares.