The head of the BBC’s multimedia newsroom, Peter Horrocks, has been named as the new director of the BBC World Service.
He takes over from Nigel Chapman who announced in November that he was leaving after four years in the job, and 31 years at the corporation, to become chief executive of children’s charity Plan International.
Horrocks said: “I’m very proud to have been given the chance to lead the world’s most exceptional group of journalists and programme-makers.”
He has been head of the BBC’s multimedia newsroom since September 2005 and was previously head of current affairs.
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Horrocks joined the BBC in 1981 as a news trainee and he has been editor of both Newsnight and Panorama.
BBC World Service delivers programmes in 32 languages on television, radio and new media to a claimed weekly global audience of more than 182 million.
Horrocks takes over amid a strike by journalists in the South Asian division of the World Service over plans to move jobs from London to India, Pakistan and Nepal.
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According to the NUJ, 40 members of the union and Bectu are taking part in a 24-hour strike which started at midnight.
The NUJ said today that the proposals could lead to 34 staff either being made redundant or moving abroad.
According to the BBC, only 10 London-based staff face redundancy or redeployment.
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