It’s not every day where you get the chance to take part in a televised debate, and my case is no exception.
Being a journalism student I take try to take advantage of each opportunity. So when asked by the BBC to join a regional debate on the War in Afghanistan with a panel of politicians, I was pretty excited. It was the first time I would be appearing on TV but don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t the main reason. It was a chance to question some politicians. Some people may think this is the least of the exciting things in their life and the lack of trust which has built up for MPs doesn’t help either. But it’s the job of us journalists to be ‘watchdogs’ of those in power, so this was a great opportunity to put my questioning skills to the test – or so I thought.
I found out later that I may or not even get a chance to speak and if I do speak I would have to keep it short. Let’s just say I was a tad disappointed but nevertheless I went with the flow and took it as ‘work experience’.
I was initially told about this by my University lecturer who then passed me on to BBC East Current Affairs Researcher, Stephanie Crowther. She told me the programme had a diverse range of people as the audience and she would like some Muslim media students from Luton to be part of the audience. I found it interesting that they were looking for Muslim students from Luton to represent the mainstream Muslim community. Did they just assume my opinion is the mainstream view? (quote maybe)
The debate was held in the University of Essex in Colchester, and the BBC kindly gave me and another fellow journalism student transport to the venue. The long one and a half hours drive from Luton to Colchester made me think we were getting late, but having arrived there I found out that we were far from late, in fact in TV there’s a lot of waiting around.
There were three Mps as part of the panel with Labour MP and Minister of the armed forces, Bill Rammel, Tory MP and also part of the Defence Select Committee Bernard Jenkins and MP for Colchester, Bob Russell. Another panel member was Inayat Bunglawala, the founder and chair of Muslims4UK. The presenter of the programme was Susie Fowler-Watt, the news present for BBC’s Look East. She introduced herself to me right before we were starting the debate and told me when it was my time to speak, I should keep it short.
The programme was similar to that of Question Time, but on a less grand scale and more restricted with regards to questioning. Everything was of course planned and prepared. They first filmed the beginning and end of the programme, thereafter asking the audience to start clapping until they told us to stop. This was probably one of the awkward parts of the filming since you had to clap even if you didn’t want to. Another awkward but funny moment was when all the politicians had to stare at the audience for a little while. I just couldn’t help but put on a smirk at the cold stares of the MP’s, and to top it off Inayat Bunglawala suddenly waved his hands in the air making a silly face. We all burst out laughing to which Bob Russell then said “You’ve done it now. We’ll be seeing that on outtake TV”. This light hearted joke seemed to have eased any tensions occurring from the issues surrounding the debate.
There were a lot of people in the audience who were affected by the war on Afghanistan. A lot of them were families of soldiers fighting in the war and some were victims of the ongoing struggle. Sitting next to me was a man whose daughter had died in the London 7/7 bombings. I spoke to him telling him more about the politicians on the panel and it seemed he was getting fired up to speak to the politicians. When it was his turn to speak, boy did he churn out a long one. I give him credit for saying everything he wanted to say.
I knew my cue was slowly drawing nearer as a video report of Luton titled ‘Luton: A community divided’ was being showed. It was about the provocative anti-war protests against the Royal Anglican Battalion last March. As the presenter asked me my opinion, I just said what I had in mind at the time.
My moment of fame lasted for 30 seconds. So was I worth it? I definitely think so. I asked Stephanie about the programme and when it was being aired. Surprisingly she told me it was being broadcasted in the very same day, and then I hurriedly phone home to tell my parents to ‘Sky plus’ the programme.
This for me was a invaluable experience, being part of a programme where I shared my views but also being able to see how a programme is created and broadcasted on the same day. Next target: BBC’s Question Time here I come!
