Diversity
Channel 4's remit is to innovate and appeal to everyone - different cultures, nationalities, religious persuasions, physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation, races and ages. You see this everyday through the scope of films, documentaries, dramas and entertainment programmes we transmit on air.
In everything we do we seek to respect people for who they are, not what they are. We judge people only for the way they do their job and for what they can contribute. We aim to foster an environment in which everyone feels free to contribute without fear and to maximise his or her potential without unfair impediment.
Read Channel 4's general Diversity Policy.
Lots of production companies have helped us achieve real improvements in our casting and on-screen representation of cultural diversity and disability. We've compiled some of their tips into a Guide to Improving On Screen Diversity.
Cultural Diversity
Cultural Diversity has always been a core value for Channel 4 and when it disbanded its Multicultural department in 2003, all commissioning teams and independent producers were given new responsibilities for ensuring that Channel 4 reflects modern, vibrant, multicultural Britain.
Multicultural programmes remain at the heart of the Channel 4's 2007 schedule with Exodus to Margate, Ghosts, Fame Asylum, The Last Slave, The Last Days of the Raj, Amir Khan's Angry Young Men, Woman Only Jihad, Undercover Mosque, Batty Man, God's Waiting Room, My New Home, Empire's Children, Ballet Hoo! and Musicool. We are committed to multicultural casting in all our programmes from Big Brother, Wife Swap and Dumped to Deal or No Deal and How to Look Good Naked.
Read Channel 4's Race Equality Scheme.
We have an ongoing commitment to support Britain's diverse communities and have pledged more than £1.5million to the training and development of ethnic minorities across the industry over the next three years. Find out more.
As part of Channel 4's commitment to reflect cultural diversity both on and off screen we have extended the funding of the following established initiatives: the Researcher Training Programme, three traineeships with Commissioning at Channel 4, bursaries on the City University's Postgraduate Journalism Course, support for black and Asian-owned production companies, networking events for people from culturally diverse backgrounds, and support for ethnic minority talent to further their careers. Read our Producers Guide.
We have onscreen diversity targets for all commissioning genres so that they reflect a modern, vibrant multicultural Britain. In addition, to help bring a wider variety of voices and opinions to all of our programmes, Channel 4 has developed a useful source of information: the Directory of Ethnic Minority Contributors, which is designed to help production companies locate black, Asian and other ethnic minorities to participate in their output.
We are a founding member of the Cultural Diversity Network (CDN), a network of UK broadcasters promoting cultural diversity both on and off-screen.
We work with many organisations to encourage and give opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds and under-represented communities to gain access to working in the media, including YCTV (Youth Culture Television), Four Corners Film and Media for All.
Disability
Channel 4 aims to commission programmes that show disabled people in all their diversity, across all genres and parts of the schedule, from Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares to Big Brother. We encourage producers to employ disabled reporters, presenters and experts to talk about non-disability issues. We ask all producers to think about ways to include disabled people in the mix, whatever the subject matter or programme genre.
To assist producers in finding disabled people for their programmes we have compiled a Disabled Talent Database and a Directory of Disabled Contributors. Read our Producers Guide.
Channel 4 programmes portray disabled people as they are - not always likeable, not always admirable, just human. This has helped us engage a broader audience, many of whom may feel they have no interest in the subject, in the issues raised by disability through distinctive, breakthrough programmes like The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off, Make Me Normal, The House of Obsessive Compulsives, Truly Madly Deeply, Comedy Lab: I'm Spazticus.
We are investing more than £200,000 annually in genuine opportunities for disabled people to work in tv including:
a) Diversity Production Training Scheme offers six places for disabled people who want to work in one of the following genres: Factual, Comedy & Entertainment, Drama, Production Management or New Media. It's a one-year scheme for trainees who are based with our suppliers, salary costs shared 50:50 with the production companies providing on the job experience plus two days per month structured training provided by Think Bigger at Channel 4, National Film and Television School and other locations.
b) Channel 4 News: one year support for trainee working at ITN across C4 and More4 News programmes including websites.
c) New Shoots (2007) / The Shooting Party (2008): 12x30 documentary series transmitting April-June, opportunity for disabled directors and other crew
Ofcom sets quotas for subtitling and sign language provision (for deaf and hard of hearing viewers) and audio description (for blind/partially-sighted viewers). We exceed Ofcom quotas for all services on Channel 4 and E4 and we also provide subtitles, in-vision signing and audio description on More4 and Film4. Read about signed and audio-described programmes.
Our commitment to promoting disability equality on screen and in the workforce is outlined in our Disability Equality Scheme.
Read Channel 4's staff Disability Policy and Questions & Answers.
We are an active member of the Broadcasting and Creative Industries Disability Network (BCIDN).
