MUMBAI: Ceri Thomas has been announced as the new head of programmes for BBC News.

Ceri will take on the new role from 18 March. He takes over from Stephen Mitchell, who is leaving the BBC.

News Programmes brings together all the major daily and weekly current affairs output, investigative journalism and major interview programmes including Panorama, Today and Newsnight. The department also includes services focused on distinctive audiences, including Radio 5 Live news programmes and Asian Network news as well as BBC Radio 1 news programmes such as Newsbeat.

The department is a journalistic powerhouse for the kind of original journalism which distinguishes the BBC from its competitors. Interviews and original journalism are shared across News adding value for audiences by bringing exceptional expertise together to find and break more news stories.

Ceri said, "So much of the heart and soul of BBC News lives in this department. It?s full of variety and ambition and endeavour. It?s where we take risks - calculated editorial risks, but risks all the same - and it?s vital that we don?t stop taking them. It?s an enormous privilege and a huge challenge to take on the job of running it."

BBC director of news Helen Boaden said, "Ceri brings outstanding experience of running one of our highest profile daily Current Affairs programmes, Today, which he has brilliantly modernised while building new relationships across the BBC. He is passionately committed to delivering courageous, challenging current affairs journalism on all platforms and is one of the most creative thinkers in BBC News.? Ceri started his broadcasting career in 1989 as a producer of AM at LBC Radio. He then joined the Today programme as a junior producer in 1991, progressing to Assistant Editor under Roger Mosey from 1995.

Ceri then moved to Radio 5 Live as Breakfast Editor and eventually to Head of News for the station. He spent a year at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow and, on returning, took on the new role of Radio Newsgathering Editor, taking the lead in strengthening the relationship between Newsgathering and Radio News and reviewing and re-organising Radio News? own reporting base.

MUMBAI: Samira Ahmed becomes the face of NewsWatch this week as the programme settles into its new home in New Broadcasting House.

‘NewsWatch‘ aims to hold BBC News to account, presenting viewers‘ opinions directly to journalists and editors and hearing lively debate about how different stories are covered.

Over the next few weeks, NewsWatch plans to explore the BBC‘s coverage of stories such as the US presidential election, the conflict in Syria and the on-going economic problems of the euro zone.

Ahmed said, "In my 20 years in broadcast news, I‘ve seen how technology has transformed what we see on screen and social media have broken down some of the barriers between newsmakers and audiences. But the same questions are still coming up: about fair dealing, balance and proportion. With viewers more willing to challenge coverage they think is not right, I‘m proud to be part of NewsWatch, which remains focused on getting answers from editors about their concerns."

NewsWatch Editor Barney Jones said, "We are delighted to be welcoming Samira Ahmed. Her experience as a distinguished broadcast journalist and presenter will be invaluable, as NewsWatch starts a new chapter, broadcasting from a state-of-the-art studio in the BBC‘s recently opened news headquarters in central London. The programme will continue its tradition of airing viewers‘ opinions about BBC News and Current Affairs, and putting their points to programme-makers and executives."

MUMBAI: BBC director general Mark Thompson will step down from his post and leave the organisation either later this year after the Olympic Games or in 2013.

BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten had said earlier that the organisation had already employed headhunters Egon Zehnder to search for a successor to Thompson.

Reports state that there are three internal possibilities for the job. They are BBC COO Caroline Thomson, BBC News head Helen Boaden and BBC Vision head George Entwistle.