There’s been so much hard news recently that there isn’t much space at all in the news agenda for our clients to get coverage of their non war-related stories. However, despite this, our client Animals Asia, which has campaigned for nearly 30 years to end the cruel trade of farming bears for their bile to use in traditional Eastern medicines, secured a slot this week on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today Programme. 

Dr Jill Robinson MBE, the founder and CEO of Animals Asia, was interviewed by Today’s Nick Robinson after she received the first ever Jane Goodall Institute Hope Award at a gala event in London.

The award recognises Jill’s decades of work to end bear bile farming and release bears from tiny cages and the suffering that bile extraction imposes on them.  In her interview she explained how she started the charity in the late 1990’s after she visited a bear farm in Southern China for the first time and held an imprisoned bear’s paw.

“As I was walking around, I felt a bear touch my shoulder and I turned around in shock because I realised I’d got too close to the cage and there was a bear with her paw through the bars. And I did a stupid thing, but she didn’t hurt me. She just squeezed my fingers, and she started everything about Animals Asia where we are today.”

Animals Asia has rescued 700 bears and provided homes for them in sanctuaries in China and Vietnam. The charity also rescues imprisoned elephants and thousands of stray cats and dogs in Asia.  This year it will celebrate a historic victory when Vietnam becomes the first country in the world to shut down all bear bile farms which are now illegal in the country.

It was totally appropriate for Jill to receive the first Jane Goodall Hope Award as she is not only a tireless campaigner against animal cruelty but was also a friend of the late Dame Jane Goodall who died last year aged 91 after a lifetime campaigning for the rights of chimpanzees and other primates.  

During her BBC interview, Nick Robinson pointed out that he had not realised until preparing for Jill’s interview that part of Jane’ Goodall’s legacy was giving animals names instead of just a reference number which was the previous scientific norm.

Jill Robinson told him this was very important. “Yes, from the very beginning, when she started in the 60s and it’s something really a legacy that I’ve loved carrying on as well since the ’90s. Every bear is not a number but a name for us even before they’re formally adopted by supporters who give them a name.”  

This wasn’t one of Nick Robinson’s famous ‘gotcha’ interviews where he interrupts and attacks.  He finished the interview by giving Jill his huge congratulations. Going onto the Today Programme doesn’t have to be a major ordeal, but it is always a big high profile challenge, and it does require thorough preparation, even if like Jill you have previous experience of giving media interviews.

If you’d like to learn more about TV News London and how our expert media trainers can help you to prepare for your media interviews, contact us on info@tvnewslondon.co.uk and we’ll call you to discuss your specific needs.