Channel 4 News’ Head of Regions, Sunita Bhatti, stressed the importance of diverse media representation on screen, off screen, and in the physical location of newsrooms.
Bhatti told the aspiring journalists at Leeds Trinity University’s eighteenth Journalism and Media Week that: “it’s really important that newsrooms are reflective of the audience that they serve.”
She said that on and off screen diversity come hand in hand: “You need on screen diversity so that the audience can see it (…) [but] now that I’m in the industry I can really see the importance of that representation off screen.
“I think it’s important that that representation exists at all levels.”
Bhatti said that onscreen diversity encouraged her that she could find a career for herself in the journalism industry. She also said that it can help establish more comfortable relationships between journalists and members of the public:
In 2024, Channel 4 announced plans to offer London employees the chance to transfer to their new offices in Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, or Glasgow. Bhatti is Channel 4 News’ first ever Head of Regions, and said that she is similarly keen to support and promote “journalists working outside of London”. In particular, she wants to see more senior positions transferred or created outside of the capital.
Whilst she acknowledged that there are such positions outside of London that have existed in those places for a long time, she said there needs to be “more”.
She described that the industry has worked hard to get more people from across the country working in a greater variety of regions to build their careers at early entry positions, but that when progressing to mid and senior positions, many face less a “glass ceiling” than a “geographic ceiling”.
She said regional journalists often “reach a level whereby their next step doesn’t exist where they are”, and noted that she has seen people “not being able to have the careers that they want to, and choosing to leave the industry”.
She explained that, “by moving senior positions outside of London, (…) people can have their careers from start to finish.
“Senior roles, whether that’s on screen or off screen, only existing in one place is not a good thing for our industry.”
Bhatti’s ambitions surrounding decentralising the UK media landscape are also motivated by the media’s position as, in her words, “the fourth estate”. She said: “you need a strong and diverse media to be able to put those checks and balances in place, so that we can ask those questions on behalf of our audiences.”
As a result, for Bhatti, “it’s really important that the media exists in every postcode”.