"Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.'' -- Voltaire

Journalism Despite my rant about Breakfast the other day, I do still think that the BBC produce the best television news in the world, particularly from their foreign bureaus. To see just how far their reach is, look at this rather good map mash-up which locates the various correspondents and feelancers on a world map with link to their profiles and the stories they've submitted to the news online website.

In some cases it doesn't look as though they've written much in the past couple of years, but that might have more to do with the way that searches are carried out and whether their work happens on radio and television more than online. Otherwise it's a great resource and which offers the chance to see a global area in a new light.

Which is precisely why Kim Ghattas, who has until recently been reporting from her home town of Beirut and the middle east, wanted to become a journalist:

"I was 13 and I was tired of my Dutch cousins asking me about whether I went to school and if we had enough food.[...] I did not understand why they were unable to grasp the fact that we were living a normal life, it seemed perfectly normal to us."

We don't tend to hear about most of these places until something has gone terribly wrong...