Emily Margesson Buchanan is a British journalist who has worked for the BBC, in both radio and television.
Early life
Born in
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
, West London, Buchanan is the daughter of George Buchanan (1904–1989), a novelist and poet from Northern Ireland, and the Hon. Janet Margesson, whose father was
David Margesson, 1st Viscount Margesson
Henry David Reginald Margesson, 1st Viscount Margesson, PC (26 July 1890 – 24 December 1965) was a British Conservative politician, most popularly remembered for his tenure as Government Chief Whip in the 1930s. His reputation was of a stern ...
, a Conservative cabinet minister in the 1930s. Her mother (1918–1968), a manic depressive, committed suicide when Buchanan was nine.
[Sarah Johnso]
"The uselessness of Chinese au pairs"
''Catholic Herald'', 12 August 2005 She was educated at the
St. Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England.
History
St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...
, an
independent school
An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...
in
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
. and read History, French and Spanish at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
. After graduation, Buchanan studied for an MA in Radio Journalism from the
City University London
City, University of London, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, and a member institution of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute, and became a university when The City Univ ...
, which she received in 1982.
[Thea Babington-Stit]
"Alumni Interviews: Emily Buchanan"
, ''XCity magazine'', City University, 22 March 2013
Career
Buchanan began her career at the BBC in
Bush House
Bush House is a Grade II listed building at the southern end of Kingsway between Aldwych and the Strand in London. It was conceived as a major new trade centre by American industrialist Irving T. Bush, and commissioned, designed, funded, a ...
, then the base of the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
, where her first interview was with
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...
,
and a few years later joined
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
to produce ''Stop Press'', "a programme which went behind the scenes of the journalism trade".
[Emily Buchana]
"A World In Your Ear"
BBC Radio 4, early 2000s After a period producing ''The Week in Westminster'', she joined BBC Television and worked for
BBC 2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
's ''Assignment'' programme. During 1992, while working in Zimbabwe, Buchanan survived an accident when her plane crash-landed.
Her ''Assignment'' programmes won awards. "Let Her Die", a report about infanticide in India, won the Golden Nymph at the
Monte-Carlo Television Festival
The Monte-Carlo Television Festival is held every year in June in the Monaco, Principality of Monaco at the Grimaldi Forum, under the Honorary Presidency of H.S.H. Albert II, Prince of Monaco, Prince Albert II of Monaco.
The opening ceremony ...
,
["FORA.tv Speaker - Emily Buchanan"](_blank)
FORA-TV Conference Event Video. This page includes an embedded recording of Buchanan giving an extended talk at the Institute of Ideas about adopting, with her husband, two abandoned baby girls from China. "The Disposables", about the killing of the poor and criminals in Colombia, was nominated for an
Amnesty International UK Media Award and
One World Media
One World Media is a non-profit organisation, registered in the UK as a charitable trust. It is based in London. The charities mission is to support strong vibrant and independent media that empowers citizens, promotes justice and contributes to in ...
nominated a programme about the
Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank ( bn, গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক) is a microfinance organisation and community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It makes small loans (known as microcredit or "grameencredit") to the impoverished without requi ...
in
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
, which predominantly lends money to women. "The Baby Trade", also for ''Assignment'', was about unscrupulous practices relating to international adoption in Paraguay.
In "Seeds of Hate", for Radio 4, in November 2000, Buchanan spoke to some of the
Muslim women who were raped during the
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
.
Towards the end of 1994 she was appointed the corporation's BBC's Developing World Correspondent. Subsequently, she became the Religious Affairs Correspondent for three years, from around 1998 to 2001, and is now the BBC's World Affairs Correspondent.
She has presented the
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
programme
Sunday
Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In most Western countries, Sunday is a day of rest and a part of the weekend. It is often considered the first day of the week.
For most observant adherents of Christianity, Sunday ...
.
Adoption
After experiencing three
miscarriage
Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...
s, Buchanan with her husband Gerald Slocock, explored the possibility of adopting children as their only means of having a family.
As the couple wanted to adopt babies, abandoned children from other parts of the world emerged as practically their only option. In her book ''From China with Love: A Long Road to Motherhood'' (2005), she outlines the difficulties of the adoption service and discusses the issues relating to the adoption of children from an entirely different culture. She deals with what she sees as "fallacies" attached to the issue. The couple now have two Chinese-born daughters, the first adopted at the beginning of the century, and the second three years later. In her book, the extreme prejudice against baby girls, to a large degree a result of China's
One-child policy
The term one-child policy () refers to a population planning initiative in China implemented between 1980 and 2015 to curb the country's population growth by restricting many families to a single child. That initiative was part of a much bro ...
, is also outlined.
Buchanan commented at the time her book came out that:
"There is an inverted racism in the social services, a preference for children to match the race of their parents ..We're all supposed to be multi-cultural, all mixing in some great melting pot - but not in families. It doesn't feel right, it doesn't look right. It looks odd. ..Part of why I wanted to write the book is to say I'm not ashamed of it. This is the way the world works now."[Richard Allen Green]
"Child and prejudice"
BBC News, 24 March 2006
References
External links
*
* "Family + Relationships archive", ''Woman's Hour'', BBC Radio 4, !7–19 September 2001. Item in 3 parts on Emily Buchanan's experience of adoptio
Part 1Part 2Part 3
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchanan, Emily
Living people
Alumni of City, University of London
Alumni of the University of Sussex
BBC newsreaders and journalists
BBC radio producers
British journalists
British reporters and correspondents
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
Year of birth missing (living people)
Women radio producers