The Christian Institute is celebrating ten years since the launch of its weekly News Bulletin, which premiered on 20 May 2011.
The maiden broadcast, featuring Jessica Crombie Smith (née Khan) as its first presenter, covered stories including the tabling of an amendment in the House of Lords to give street preachers more protections, a Christian GP taking legal action against the Home Office for unfair dismissal, and an attempt to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.
The bulletin has been filmed and broadcast to thousands of supporters of The Christian Institute almost every week since, keeping them informed of the latest news affecting Christians in the UK, and the 500th issue will be published online in August this year.
‘Unique platform’
Tony Barber, the Institute’s Broadcast Manager at the time, was instrumental in getting the project off the ground. He said he was “delighted” the bulletin is still going after ten years “and continues to go from strength to strength”.
“From the outset, the goal was to produce a weekly high quality informative news video for Christians, highlighting major issues in society that believers could engage with and would feel passionate about.
“It also gave The Christian Institute a unique platform to promote its wider national campaigning work and key role in upholding and promoting the Christian worldview.”
‘Pioneering’
Reflecting on her involvement, Jessica said: “It’s great to see that it’s still going strong. It was brilliant to be part of the first one – pioneering something new, trying to reach new audiences – and it’s great to see that 10 years later important stories are still going out to Christians around the UK.”
Mike Judge, the Institute’s former Head of Communications, said: “It’s vital for Christians to understand what’s going on in our society, without the secular spin that so often pervades the traditional media.
“That’s just as important today as it was ten years ago.”
‘Great pleasure’
The Institute’s Deputy Director for Communications, Ciarán Kelly, said: “The CI News bulletin has been used by Christians, not just in the UK, but around the world, to be kept up to date on the latest issues, and to inform their prayer lives.
“We have received so many messages over the years from people who have truly benefited from our reporting, and so it is a great pleasure to be able to help people in this way.”
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