Editorial

Dear all,

I hope you are enjoying the summer. We have a jam-packed edition of Monitor magazine, featuring articles about mercenaries, monarchy and, of course, the media. I am always impressed by the skill and expertise shown by our journalists in making sense of the world’s media. Our lead article on the media operations of Russia’s Wagner group illustrates just how challenging this can be. Colleagues covering the recent insecurity in Sudan are using mainstream media outlets in Africa and the Middle East to shine a light on the role of Wagner and other mercenary groups in the unrest there.

Also in this edition, we go behind the scenes at BBC Verify - a new brand within BBC News aimed at building trust with audiences by transparently showing how BBC journalists know the information they are reporting - and hear about the part that BBC Monitoring plays in this exciting new initiative.

BBC Monitoring has been exploring the world through the lens of its media for over 80 years and I am delighted that more of our history is now available through a project to digitise the Summary of World Broadcast documents. This exciting project, undertaken by Readex, unlocks this important archive for academics around the world.

Happy reading!

Liz Howell