[simon]

I quite like this camera angle/location, which has been used over the past 24 hours.


Perhaps ironically BBC Monitoring has been getting a lot of name checks today and yesterday. Does slightly beg the question why they bothered creating BBC Verify, when BBC Monitoring still exists and has been getting a lot of mentions.

They do have different remits, though.

BBC Monitoring is about having bilingual journalists monitoring foreign media to look out for new stories that haven't yet been reported on, to keep an eye on what state controlled media is saying about a story, and to occasionally provide a level of expertise on that region by providing analysis in live hits. I assume they also do a lot of translation work as part of this. This can include fact checking and OSINT, but that is a secondary task. Most of their routine work we never see as their primary role is to monitor.

BBC Verify is primarily about OSINT, fact checking claims made on social media / traditional media, and doing explainers on what they know and how they know it. A sort of 'behind the scenes' look at the journalism to build trust. We see all of their work as their primary role is to create output.

There may be some overlap on some stories (like this one), but I do think they very clearly have different remits.

It's also worth remembering that Monitoring provides a commercial service as well.