Roger Finn reflects on being misquoted by The Sun and the need for continuous clarity in broadcast journalism.
He enjoys spending more time with his three sons, sailing and playing golf three times a year, but Roger Finn still reports the news regularly - in fact this interview was conducted while Roger was waiting for his editor to arrive in the BBC Studio.
‘My career started in Hong Kong with Radio Television Hong Kong, it was actually run by a lot of people seconded by the BBC and so it had the same kind of ethos.’ Roger was trained for 30 minutes to use a video camera before being thrust into the field. He then went on to work with the BBC, creating documentaries, presenting Newsround and finally working with BBC South Today.
Nothing is more important to him than to be precise, ‘on the news you only see it once… the need for clarity is far higher in broadcasting, it forces you to pay attention to every word.’ Silence can also be as poignant as voice-overs, ‘the best journalists know how to respect good pictures, shutting up when it’s time to listen.’
Roger stresses the need for attention to detail, ‘I was featured in the Sun years ago, when I read the article back they quoted me as being “21 year old superstar reporter Roger Finn…”…I was 33 at the time and they blatantly made it up. You will never get things like that wrong on television because the pictures are there to contradict you.’
