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Emma Barnett

Emma Barnett (born 5 February 1985) is a British broadcaster and journalist who presented Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 from 2021 until 2024.

Emma Barnett
Barnett in 2016
Born
Emma Barnett

(1985-02-05) 5 February 1985 (age 39)
Manchester, England
EducationManchester High School for Girls
Alma materUniversity of Nottingham
Cardiff University
Occupation(s)Journalist
TV and radio presenter
Children2[1]

Barnett worked for BBC Radio 5 Live for six years, beginning in 2014, after three years working for LBC. Between 2016 and 2020 she presented 5 Live's mid-morning weekday programme. Before beginning her broadcasting career she worked for The Daily Telegraph, first as its Digital Media editor and latterly its Women editor, being credited with bringing a more serious edge to the coverage of women's issues in the paper. Between August 2016 and 2020, she was a columnist for The Sunday Times and, from June 2017, a co-presenter of BBC One's Sunday Morning Live. In autumn 2017, she was one of the presenters on the live discussion programme After the News on ITV. Between 2019 and 2022 she was a regular presenter of the BBC's news and current affairs show Newsnight. In March 2024, Barnett announced she would step down from Woman's Hour in April, to join the BBC's long-running Today programme, as part of their presenting team.[2][3]

Early life and education

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Barnett was born on 5 February 1985 in Manchester to Jewish parents, Ian, a commercial property surveyor, and Michele Barnett and is a single child.[4][5] Her grandmother fled Wiener Neustadt,[6] Austria, to escape the Nazis.[7] Barnett attended Manchester High School for Girls, a private school. In 2006 she graduated with a degree in History and Politics from the University of Nottingham.[8][9] She took a postgraduate course in journalism at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies.[10]

In 2010, Barnett's father was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison following a conviction for operating brothels in the Greater Manchester area.[11] Her mother received a suspended sentence for money laundering related to income from the brothels.[12] According to Police, they "found emails between Mr Barnett and his daughter Emma, talking about his `whores'".[12] Although Barnett refuses to talk about or answer questions concerning her father's conviction,[13] she has written that the experience traumatised her[14] and that it has been a "long, horribly bumpy road to forgiveness".[13]

Career

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Following the postgraduate course at Cardiff, Barnett began her career in journalism at Media Week in 2007 and joined The Daily Telegraph in 2009, later becoming the paper's first digital media editor,[15] and then, from 2012, the women's editor. Barnett launched The Telegraph's digital section, "Wonder Women", in October 2012 with contributors such as Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News.[16][17][18] She also became chair of the UJIA Jewish media network[19] and of the UJIA Skirt Network, a networking group for Jewish women.[20]

A radio presenter for LBC for almost three years until early 2014, Barnett joined BBC Radio 5 Live that summer.[21] From November 2014, she presented the station's Hit List programme, a countdown of the 40 highest profile online news stories of the week.[22] After leaving The Telegraph, Barnett started presenting the morning slot on BBC Radio 5 Live in September 2016, being the first woman to have a solo daily slot since the departure of Shelagh Fogarty and Victoria Derbyshire two years earlier in a new-look schedule.[18]

In April 2014, Barnett was a judge for Woman's Hour (on BBC Radio 4) power list,[23] a programme on which she had already been an occasional presenter, the youngest in the programme's history.[24][25] A decade before Barnett began her role on Woman's Hour, at 17, she did work experience with its presenter, Jenni Murray.[24] Additionally, she has made documentaries for Radio 4.[10]

In August 2016, Barnett's 'Tough Love' agony column began in The Sunday Times Magazine. To encourage her readers to write in about difficult issues, she referred to "the most painful chapter of my life" when her father was "imprisoned for living off immoral earnings"[26] "after pleading guilty to keeping brothels with a turnover of more than £2.5m".[27]

In March 2018, Barnett began a series of podcasts for Historic England entitled Irreplaceable: A History of England in 100 Places. The podcast, presented by Barnett and Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb, was nominated for the British Podcast Awards in the 'Best Branded Content' category in April 2018.

In March 2019 she became one of the regular presenters on BBC Two's Newsnight.[28] In 2019 her book Period. It's About Bloody Time was released, which covered her experience of endometriosis.[29]

In January 2021, Barnett became the main presenter of Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[30][31] In Barnett's first week, a guest on the programme, Kelechi Okafor, refused to be interviewed by her after overhearing her discuss with the programme producers what Barnett called "allegedly anti-semitic comments" previously made by Okafor.[32] In the following month, one hundred public figures signed an open letter to the BBC criticising what they called Barnett's "strikingly hostile" interview of Zara Mohammed, the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain.[33][34] In June 2021, Sinéad O'Connor complained about how Barnett had questioned her about her mental health during a Woman's Hour interview. O'Connor announced, because of the interview, she would retire from performing, but two days later retracted her decision to retire.[35]

In January 2022, Barnett started a new role at Bloomberg, hosting the weekly show Emma Barnett Meets.[36] In this role, she has interviewed prominent figures including Al Sharpton, Anthony Fauci and Tim Berners Lee.

In March 2024, Barnett announced she was stepping down from Woman's Hour in April, to join the presenting team on BBC Radio 4's Today, replacing Martha Kearney, when she steps down after the 2024 General Election.[37][3] She presented her first edition of Today on 15 May 2024.

Awards

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Barnett was named in two consecutive annual lists of the Radio Academy’s 30 under 30 list.[22] She also made the 20 under 30 Hot List feature in Red magazine in 2011.[38] While at The Telegraph, Barnett was named Digital Journalist of the Year by the Association of Online Publishers and Digital Writer of the Year at the 2011 Online Media Awards.[15] She was named best newcomer at the Arqiva commercial radio awards in 2012.[21] She was named Broadcaster of the Year in 2017 by the Political Studies Association[39] and Radio Broadcaster of the Year in 2018 by the Broadcasting Press Guild.[40]

Barnett won the Gold award for Best Speech Presenter at the 2022 Audio and Radio Industry Awards for her work on Woman's Hour.[41]

Personal life

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Barnett met her husband at university and married in 2012.[42] In 2018, she had a son and in 2023, she had a daughter, after five rounds of IVF and experiencing one miscarriage.[1][43][44] She lives in Brixton, south London.[45][46]

She is not highly religiously observant,[4] and is ambivalent about both Orthodox and Reform Judaism.[47] In a 2014 BBC Radio segment, she expressed discomfort at women being rabbis.[48] She has volunteered for British Jewish welfare charity Norwood.[19]

Barnett was a member of the Women's Equality Party.[49]

References

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  1. ^ a b Thorpe, Vanessa (13 September 2020). "Emma Barnett: the firebrand taking on the challenge of Woman's Hour". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  2. ^ Stolworthy, Jacob (15 March 2024). "Emma Barnett to leave Woman's Hour in major BBC shakeup". The Independent. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  3. ^ a b Topping, Alexandra (15 March 2024). "Emma Barnett to join BBC Radio 4's Today programme". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  4. ^ a b Barnett, Emma (11 March 2014). "Can you really be an Orthodox Jew and a feminist?". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  5. ^ Child, David (7 September 2020). "Emma Barnett's career history as she's announced as the new Radio 4 Woman's Hour presenter". Evening Standard.
  6. ^ Barnett, Emma (28 July 2020). "Wiley, Jews don't run the world". The JC.
  7. ^ O'Connor, Roisin (27 July 2020). "BBC radio host Emma Barnett issues powerful condemnation of Wiley antisemitism: 'Those words burn'". The Independent.
  8. ^ Barnett, Emma (2 June 2014). "Kirstie Allsopp—Are her views on women for real?". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  9. ^ "A Levels: Emma's flawless score". Manchester Evening News. 18 January 2013 [10 August 2004]. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  10. ^ a b "Inspirational women – Emma Barnett". Changing People. 10 November 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  11. ^ "'Vile and immoral' man jailed". Manchester Evening News. 12 January 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  12. ^ a b "School aide laundered brothel cash". Manchester Evening News. 21 January 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  13. ^ a b Thomson, Alice (10 May 2024). "Emma Barnett: 'The pain was so bad, I was losing the will to live'". The Times. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  14. ^ Sanderson, David (8 September 2020). "Emma Barnett to host Woman's Hour as Radio 4 chases younger listeners". The Times. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  15. ^ a b Bussey, Cathy (6 October 2011). "Spotlight on...Emma Barnett: 'The Internet Has Moved On'". PR Week. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  16. ^ Turvill, William (1 October 2012). "Telegraph launches 'sassy' website for women". Press Gazette. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  17. ^ Barnett, Emma (1 October 2012). "Welcome to Wonder Women, new from The Telegraph". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  18. ^ a b Jackson, Jasper (18 September 2016). "Emma Barnett to host BBC Radio 5 Live morning show". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  19. ^ a b "Radio's new golden girl". Jewish Chronicle. 27 July 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  20. ^ Shelnman, Anna (6 May 2013). "UJIA shows some Skirt". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  21. ^ a b Plunkett, John (7 July 2014). "BBC Radio 5 Live recruits Emma Barnett for new Sunday night show". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  22. ^ a b "Emma Barnett to present The 5 live Hit List". BBC Media Centre. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  23. ^ "Woman's Hour Power List 2014 – the panel". BBC Radio 4.
  24. ^ a b Delgado, Kasia (21 September 2016). "Emma Barnett is on a mission to smash taboos on Radio 5 Live". Radio Times. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  25. ^ Morrison, Sarah (21 September 2013). "Women of the Future Awards: Full shortlist". The Independent. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  26. ^ Barnett, Emma (7 August 2016). "Tough love". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 31 May 2017. (subscription required)
  27. ^ "School aide laundered brothel cash". Manchester Evening News. 19 April 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  28. ^ "Emily Maitlis announced as new lead presenter for Newsnight". BBC Media Centre. 20 March 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  29. ^ Speed, Barbara (12 September 2019). "Period by Emma Barnett: A self-help guide, not a manifesto". inews.
  30. ^ "Emma Barnett to present Radio 4's Woman's Hour". BBC News. 7 September 2020.
  31. ^ "Emma Barnett to be the new host of Woman's Hour". BBC Media Centre. 7 September 2020.
  32. ^ Wolfe-Robinson, Maya; Bland, Archie (6 January 2021). "BBC Woman's Hour guest drops out after presenter's comments". Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  33. ^ Mohdin, Aamna (17 February 2021). "BBC under fire over 'strikingly hostile' interview of Muslim Council of Britain head". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  34. ^ "BBC Woman's Hour accused of 'hostile' interview with Muslim leader". BBC. 18 February 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  35. ^ Snapes, Laura (8 June 2021). "Sinéad O'Connor retracts retirement announcement". TheGuardian.com.
  36. ^ "Emma Barnett Meets - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. 11 May 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  37. ^ Topping, Alexandra (27 February 2024). "Emma Barnett tipped for Today presenter job after Martha Kearney steps down". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  38. ^ "Red magazine's 20 Under 30: 'The Hot List'". The Telegraph. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  39. ^ "Meet the winners of the PSA Awards 2017". Political Studies Association. 6 December 2017.
  40. ^ "BPG TV & Radio Awards 2018". Broadcasting Press Guild. 16 March 2018.
  41. ^ "ARIAS 2022 Winners". The Radio Academy. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  42. ^ Barnett, Emma (15 November 2012). "Emma Barnett: Facebook meddling caused my marriage 'break-up'". Irish Independent. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  43. ^ Barnett, Emma (29 November 2018). "Why maternity leave can be harder and lonelier than you imagine". BBC. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  44. ^ Fleet, Holly (30 January 2023). "BBC's Woman's Hour presenter Emma Barnett welcomes baby after IVF". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  45. ^ "About". emmabarnett.org. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  46. ^ O'Keeffe, Niamh (14 January 2021). "My London: Emma Barnett". Evening Standard. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  47. ^ Barnett, Emma (27 October 2016). "Reform? Orthodox? I'm not sure where I belong". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  48. ^ "Emma Barnett talks to Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 20 February 2021. Emma Barnett is a feminist who believes in equality for women but, as an orthodox Jew, she's uncomfortable with female rabbis, like Sylvia Rothschild. Can she resolve this tension?
  49. ^ Barnett, Emma (18 June 2015). "Feminism is a toxic word and us feminists should remember that". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
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