Author: a.poslusny

Veda Natarajan, 6, handed her notebook she had brought in for show-and-tell to a curious classmate on the playground after school. A group of children gathered around to look at her colorful drawings of butterflies. As they turned the pages one little girl asked Veda what the sparkly silver letters at the top of the page meant.

“That’s my name in Sanskrit!” She proudly explained. The children nodded their heads as they kept turning the pages.

Veda is part of a multicultural family. Veda’s mother, Jessie Natarajan, 36, is a U.S. native, while her father, Raghav Natarajan, 40, was born and raised in India.

Today, many families in the U.S. are multicultural. According to the Pew Research group, 12 percent of newlyweds married someone of a different race in 2013 versus just 7 percent in 1980. According to the Census report, projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S. Population: 2014 to 2060, by 2020 more than half of the nation’s children are expected to be part of a minority race or ethnic group.

Immigrants at the turn of the century looked to assimilate into American culture, however, today, we see more and more people choosing to preserve their cultural ties to back home and share that with their children.

Jessie grew up in Rochester, New York, later moving to Long Island in middle school. Raised in a Protestant Christian-Italian family, she did not know much about Indian culture until meeting her husband Raghav.

“We met and we got married six months later. I think I thought I knew a lot about India because I like went to some yoga classes, but no I had no idea really, it was all completely foreign.”

Jessie was working at her dream job as a speech pathologist at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie when a mutual friend introduced the pair. Raghav was born and raised in Southern India in the city of Chennai before moving to the U.S. to attend grad school at Marist College for computer science.

“I always wanted to marry someone outside of my race. Interestingly enough, my uncle studies horoscopes and said a long time ago that it was indicated by my horoscope that I would marry a foreign born person,” Raghav said.

Although Jessie viewed herself as open-minded and was eager to travel, reality was much harsher than she prepared for. When she first journeyed 24-hours across the world to meet her husband’s parents, it was to get married. They had two weddings, one in the United States and one in India. Upon arrival she was miserable and scared.

“It actually felt so foreign that I didn’t feel like I was on earth,” Jessie said.

For more on Jessie’s first trip to India, listen here:

Jessie was shocked on her first night there to come into Raghav’s parents’ kitchen to find cockroaches all over the place. This completely disgusted her. Overheated, exhausted and suffering from dysentery from the food and water she gave her husband an ultimatum: that she would never move there and that if he wanted to be with her that he had to accept that they would always live in the United States.

It wasn’t until Jessie’s third trip that she changed her mind. She decided to accept her experiences there without comparing or trying to make it into a “western experience.” After making that conscious effort to embrace India without the shackles of ethnocentrism, she loves it there now and would like to move there or buy a second home there someday.

Veda has been to India four times and Henri, 1, celebrated his first birthday there. They all try to go as a family at least once a year for a couple of months at a time so that Veda and Henri are exposed to their cultural roots and get to spend time with their family that is there.

Here in America, the family keeps the culture alive. They cook traditional Indian food at home, which was an easy transition from Jessie’s diet prior to meeting Raghav. Although she comes from a traditional first-generation Italian family, she had personally been vegetarian. Raghav’s family had been vegetarian going back “thousands of years,” because in the Hindu religion meat, especially beef is forbidden. Jessie says that they eat a 90 percent south-Indian diet, which did take her body a while to adjust to because she was introduced to a lot of spices she had never eaten before. Jessie also practices the Indian Ayurveda, which is the wisdom of taking care of your body.

“It’s like Chinese medicine but it’s Indian medicine. So like for instance when it’s really hot they would say in my husband’s family ‘Don’t eat mango’ because it heats the body.”

Jessie and Raghav both go to and bring their children to Eastern and Western doctors here in the United States.

“For diagnostics, Western medicine may be more concrete, but for treatment we prefer diet, Ayurvedic medicine, and homeopathic medicine, which started in Germany, but is widely studied and practiced in India,” Jessie said.

Jessie also never formally converted to Hinduism, but that’s because she didn’t have to.

“What’s interesting about Hinduism is that there’s really no conversion, because they believe that anyone who identifies with the god inside of them, like if we all come from a divine source, once you recognize that, that’s the definition of being Hindu,” Jessie said.

She identifies with Hinduism more than she ever did with Christianity. It liberated her and allowed her to have a “religious and spiritual experience” in her life.

“I love the Hindu way of life and spirituality so we definitely integrate that into our lives.”

Although Jessie’s family is religious, they don’t mind her practicing something other than Christianity. They embrace these cultural differences with open arms, respect and curiosity.

“Our kids attend private Montessori school and go to the Hindu temple weekly, if possible. This is important to expose them to the religion, but also to Indian peer groups, who are typically raised in a very different way than Western school peers,” Raghav said.

Jessie and Raghav love sharing in each other’s cultures. They believe that the key to any marriage is compromise, and being a multicultural family facilitates that open communication and makes compromise much easier and more natural.

“Every relationship requires compromise,” Jessie said.

Sources:

 

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-tps16.html

 

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/12/interracial-marriage-who-is-marrying-out/

 

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/30/5-facts-about-the-modern-american-family/

 

 

 

 

When Jessie Natarajan, 36, first traveled to India from the U.S. it was to get married.

[Details of wedding]

Today, many families in the U.S. are multicultural. According to the Pew Research group, 12 percent of newlyweds married someone of a different race in 2013 versus just 7 percent in 1980. According to the Census report, projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S. Population: 2014 to 2060, by 2020 more than half of the nation’s children are expected to be part of a minority race or ethnic group.

 Many immigrants looked to assimilate into American culture …. Today, we see more and more people choosing to preserve their cultural ties to back home and share that with their children.

 Jessie grew up in Rochester, New York, later moving to Long Island in middle school. Raised in a Protestant Christian-Italian family, she did not know much about Indian culture until meeting her husband Raghav.

 “We met and we got married six months later. I think I thought I knew a lot about India because I like went to some yoga classes, but no I had no idea really, it was all completely foreign.”

 Jessie was working at her dream job as a speech pathologist at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie when a mutual friend introduced the pair. Raghav was born and raised in Southern India in the city of Chennai before moving to the U.S. to attend grad school at Marist College for computer science.

 Although Jessie viewed herself as open-minded and was eager to travel, reality was much harsher than she prepared for.

 “It was so weird, like the first two times I went there I would just be like standing there and I’d be telling myself like ‘I’m on earth,’ and India’s on earth and so is America. Because it actually felt so foreign that I didn’t feel like I was on earth, it was so out there,” Jessie said.

 When she first journeyed 24-hours across the world to meet her husband’s family and to get married she was miserable and scared. Exhausted from the extensive travel, she felt her body begin to “shut down” when exposed to all these new elements.

 “The waters different, the foods different, the smells are different, the sounds are different, everything is so different that you’re body just shuts down.”

 Jessie was shocked on her first night there to come into Raghav’s parent’s kitchen to find cockroaches all over the place. This completely disgusted her. Overheated, exhausted and suffering from dysentery from the food and water she gave her husband an ultimatum: that she would never move there and that if he wanted to be with her that he has to accept that they will always live in the U.S.

 It wasn’t until Jessie’s third trip that she changed her mind. She decided to accept her experiences there without comparing or trying to make it into a “western experience.” After making that conscious effort to embrace India without the shackles of ethnocentrism, she loves it there now and would like to move there or buy a second home there someday.

 Veda, 6, has been to India four times and Henri, 1, celebrated his first birthday there. They all try to go as a family at least once a year for a couple of months at a time so that Veda and Henri are exposed to their cultural roots and get to spend time with their family that is there.

 Here in America, the family keeps the culture alive. They cook traditional Indian food at home, which was an easy transition from Jessie’s diet prior to meeting Raghav. Although she comes from a traditional first-generation Italian family, she had personally been vegetarian. Raghav’s family had been vegetarian going back “thousands of years,” because in the Hindu religion meat, especially beef is forbidden. Jessie says that they eat a 90% south-Indian diet, which did take her body a while to adjust to because she was introduced to a lot of spices she had never eaten before.

Jessie also practices Ayruveda, which is ancient system of medicine rooted in India.

 “It’s like Chinese medicine but it’s Indian medicine. So like for instance when it’s really hot they would say in my husband’s family ‘don’t eat mango’ because it heats the body. They drink a lot of milk, because the cow is the mother of all humans because they give milk, so you should never kill a cow.”

 Jessie never formally converted to Hinduism, but that’s because she didn’t have to.

“What’s interesting about Hinduism is that there’s really no conversion, because they believe that anyone who identifies with the god inside of them, like if we all come from a divine source, once you recognize that, that’s the definition of being Hindu,” Jessie said.

 She identifies with Hinduism more than she ever did with Christianity. It liberated her and allowed her to have a “religious and spiritual experience” in her life.

 “I love the Hindu way of life and spirituality so we definitely integrate that into our lives.”

Although Jessie’s family is religious, they don’t mind her practicing something other than Christianity. They embrace these cultural differences with open arms, respect and curiosity.

 

Baruch College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY), is one of the most diverse colleges in the United States. Ranked No. 7 on Forbes most diverse Colleges list, there are 17,063 undergrad students and 3,943 graduate students representing 166 countries, according to Baruch’s Fact Sheet.

The clubs offered at Baruch reflect this diversity with 35 out of 105 total being religious and or cultural. These clubs encourage students to learn about different cultures, religions, and ways of life.

The Hindu Student Association is a “community for Baruch students interested in all aspects of Hindu thought, worship, and spirituality.” This club welcomes all students regardless of race or religion and helps people build a better understanding of Hinduism through open discussions, celebration of Hindu festivals, and even yoga/mediation classes.

I want to write this story about this club and expand on the events they run, how it originated, and how it affects people at Baruch. I would like to talk to students who are not Hindu, but are in the club or have attended events as well as Hindu students.

 

Henna Happiness has been located at 6 Carver Street in Huntington, New York for the past nine years.

Owner Trudy Pellegrino started Henna Happiness after 10 years of working art-fairs and wanting to start her own business. Henna is her passion. When speaking about it, she tears up, “I don’t know what I would do without henna,” Pellegrino says.

Pellegrino was first introduced to henna art in 1997 at a craft booth at the New Life Expo in New York City. “I saw someone at the payphone wearing henna and I was like ‘well that’s cool.’” She tells me that this moment was meant to be, like divine intervention. After seeing the henna she went to find the henna booth, but it wasn’t what she was expecting. “These blonde ladies from Connecticut were doing the henna, pretty funny right?” says Pellegrino.

Pellegrino’s shop is decorated with crystals, jewelry and tapestries that she has hand-picked from all over the country.

The giant dream catchers come from an artist in Washington, D.C.

Pellegrino admits that when she first discovered henna, she thought that she had to be Indian to do it. Born and raised in Huntington, New York, she pursued henna anyway and now feels like a “messenger for henna” because when she started doing them 20 years ago it wasn’t as popular as it is today. She attributes much of the popularization to the Internet and social media such as Facebook and Instagram. American-based Instagram accounts such as “hennaforallny” have 145- thousand followers, and American celebrities such as Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus and Beyonce have been seen wearing hennas.

Originating in Ancient India, henna is the art of dyeing your skin with a paste made from the dry leaves of the henna plant. When henna is first applied it looks green, but after it dries and flakes off it leaves an orange-brown stain.

Jordan O’callaghan, 13, is getting her first henna done “just because,” she says.

Most of the clientele here are younger women, Pellegrino says. She does traditional wedding henna, but also gets a lot of her business from clients seeking temporary scar cover-ups. There are a wide variety of clients and reasons to get henna, including maternity hennas.

Kim Sudima, 36, gets a maternity henna for her fourth pregnancy. This is the second maternity henna Sudima has gotten. “It’s a way to honor the pregnancy,” she says. “It only takes an hour or so, and we go out to dinner afterward – make a day out of it.”

Pellegrino also does astrology readings with her dog Wilbur by her side. She attributes her success to her commitment with the shop. “I’m here everyday.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The entrance to Henna Happiness at 6 Carver Street in Huntington New York.

Trudy Pellegrino is the owner of Henna Happiness for nine years. She started Henna Happiness after 10 years of working art-fairs and wanting to start her own business. Henna is her passion. When speaking about it, she started to tear up, “I don’t know what I would do without henna,” Pellegrino said.

Pellegrino was first introduced to henna art in 1997 at a craft booth at the “New Life Expo” in New York City. “I saw someone at the payphone wearing henna and I was like ‘well that’s cool.’” She tells me that this moment was meant to be, like divine intervention. After seeing the henna she went to find the henna booth, but it wasn’t what she was expecting. “These blonde ladies from Connecticut were doing the henna, pretty funny right?” said Pellegrino.

Pellegrino’s shop is decorated with products including crystals, jewelry and tapestries that she has hand picked from all over the country.

The giant dream catchers come from an artist in Washington DC said Pellegrino.

Pellegrino admits that when she first discovered henna she thought that she had to be Indian to do them. Born and raised in Huntington New York, she pursued henna anyway and now feels like a “messenger for henna” because when she started doing them 20 years ago it “wasn’t as popular as it is today.” She attributes much of the popularization to the Internet and social media such as Facebook and Instagram.

Jordan O’callaghan, 13, is getting her first henna done “just because” on what she called a “girls morning” with her mom.

Most of the clientele here are younger women Pellegrino says. She does traditional wedding henna but also gets a lot of her business from clients seeking temporary scar cover-ups. But there are a wide variety of clients and reasons to get henna, including maternity hennas.

Kim Sudima, 36, gets a maternity henna for her fourth pregnancy. This is the second maternity henna Sudima has gotten. “It’s a way to honor the pregnancy, it only takes an hour or so, and we (her and her friends) go out to dinner afterward – make a day out of it.”

 

 

 

American and Swedish experts for the United Nations, Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan, were killed in the Congo on March 12th along with their interpreter Betu Tshintela. “The United Nations frequently engages experts under individual contracts to work on short-term projects either as a consultant or an individual contractor”according to the United Nations. These experts were looking into an alleged human rights violation by the Congolese army and militia group according to the AP. They were investigating alleged mass graves.

On Friday March 31st at a noon briefing at the United Nations by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, a reporter pressed this topic. “There’s an AP story datelined “Beni” about the Democratic Republic of the Congo that says that a third person, the interpreter, Betu Tshintela, was found with the two panel of expert members. Maybe this story was erroneous, but I just wanted to know from you, what’s the UN’s understanding of Mr. Betu Tshintela’s status?” the reporter asked. The story that he is referring to by the AP states that, “it is possible to identify the bodies as the two U.N. experts and their interpreter as being found near the Moyo River.”

Haq’s response to the reporter’s question served little insight. Haq said that ultimately it is not the United Nations place to confirm the report, but for the Congolese authorities who are investigating. The reporter asked a follow up question after Haq’s brief response asking if the United Nations had actually been to the site and who found the bodies. Haq said that the bodies were found by the Congolese and MONUSCO members, and that the reporter would need to ask the Congolese authorities.

Haq’s response to this question in particular felt curtailed and left the reporter visibly upset. He was shaking his head back and forth as he attempted to ask multiple follow up questions. The response from Haq left me feeling like the United Nations is sweeping these deaths under the rug and not protecting their own workers or even investigating their deaths.

http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2017-03-28-AF-Congo-Bodies/id-3a607bc1ece84873ba490a75d45c49e8

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/141fe0ed2c9f4423b88cdc9920387bf4/sweden-un-congo-must-investigate-deaths-swede-american

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c4f9b5e7d3374e978820e97764b616c5/congolese-militia-decapitates-more-40-police-officials

 

Jared Diamond’s novel, Guns, Germs And Steel, uses historical archaeology to try to answer the controversial and unknown reasons why different regions and cultures developed with such disparity across the world. “Empires with steel weapons were able to conquer or exterminate tribes with weapons of stone and wood. How, though, did the world get to be the way it was in A.D. 1500?” Diamond also addresses the illusion that throughout history “industrialized states” have been looked at as better than “hunter-gatherer tribes” and that industrialization means progress and happiness.

This relates to the country of India, which I am focusing on this semester. From 1757 to 1858 the British East India Company ruled parts of India after the Carnatic Wars, which were mainly fought on Indian territories. The British East India Company became a monopoly of trade and their dominance led to their control over most of India and then to British Raj, in which the British crown controlled India. British Raj lasted all the way up until 1947. Under British rule, India started producing steel in 1908 to compete with the United States and Germany. The Indian Empire (British rule) also built railway systems in the late 1800’s. Like Diamond points out, throughout history, more developed nations desired to colonize more primitive nations. One explanation Diamond might give as to why India and Great Britain developed at different rates is climate, as Great Britain is colder and needed to rapidly make technological advances to stay alive while India was warmer and people could survive with very little advances.

I am a student in your International Reporting class and I want to cover a story on India’s growing air pollution. Although there have been articles from a vast number of publications addressing this issue, the Indian government doesn’t appear to be doing much about it.

When most people think of air pollution, they think of China. Although China has been the world leader in number of deaths linked to fine particle matter (PM2.5), India is rapidly catching up. As the number of deaths in China stabilizes, the number of deaths in India continues to grow. According to data from the Health Effects Institute, a non-profit that provides relevant science on the health effects of air pollution, the number of PM2.5 caused deaths in China increased by 162,800 from 1990 to 2015. In the same amount of time, the number of PM2.5 caused deaths in India increased by 353,000.

It is not just PM2.5 linked deaths that are increasing either. “On a global basis, the fraction of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) deaths linked to ozone have increased from 5% in 1990 to 8% in 2015. Much of that increase occurred in India.” According to the American Lung association, the ozone layer found in the stratosphere protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, but “ozone air pollution” in the troposphere “causes serious health problems.” Ozone air pollution comes form the burning of fossil fuels and “high-heat combustion” such as burning coal or in using motor vehicles.

As India’s air quality declines, environmental regulations fail to curtail growing pollution. According to The Times of India, two Indians die every minute due to air pollution. Although air pollution is a growing problem, improvement still seems at a far. In India’s submission to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, it states that coal based power makes up 60.8% of India’s installed capacity. Rather than move away from coal, the goal is to “improve the efficiency of coal based power plants.”

When I interviewed Steven DSouza for my beat memo, he mentioned India’s poor air quality and visible smoke. DSouza also mentioned the lack of regulation and that people continue the practices that they are already doing. An article in the New York Times described this problem in further detail. The article states that although India’s environmental court, “The National Green Tribunal,” ordered the government to stop farmers from burning the straw left from their crops, NASA satellite images show that no progress has been made. Another article in The Times of India cited an important reason as to why farmers are not ceasing this practice, which is that it is still cheaper to buy higher quantities of fertilizer due to subsidies than to purchase a machine that removes the straw.

I want to explore this topic from an international perspective and write a print story.

The country that I will be focusing on this semester is India. India is located in South Asia and has a population of 1.2 billion people according to the United States Census Bureau. The most popular spoken language is Hindi, however there are 14 other official languages including, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit according to the Central Intelligence Agency. Religions practiced today include Hindu (78.8%), Muslim (14.2%), Christian (2.3%), Sikh (1.7%), and other (2%).

The median age is 26.9 for men and 28.3 for women. India has a population growth rate of 1.19% compared to the United States, which has a population growth rate of 0.81%. The mean age of a mother’s first birth is 19.9. The infant mortality rate is 40.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy for men is 67.3 years and 69.8 years for women.

Using the Central Intelligence Agency’s Factbook, major urban areas within India include New Delhi, which is the capital, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

From 1757 to 1858 the British East India Company, which monopolized trade over cotton, silk, indigo, salt, tea and opium in over half of the world ruled parts of India. After the liquidation of the British East India Company and transfer of power to the British Crown in 1858, India remained under British rule from 1858 to 1947 under a period called British Raj. Currently the Government of India is a federal parliamentary republic, which includes 29 states and seven union territories. The federal government directly rules union territories.

Much like the United States, their federal government is made up of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive branch consists of the chief of state, President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the cabinet appointed by the president. The president and vice president serve five-year terms with no term limits. The legislative branch is a bicameral Parliament. The Council of States consists of 245 seats and 233 members who are elected by state assemblies and the president. The House of the People consists of 545 seats and 543 members. The Judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court and lower courts.

Up until 1949, India had a caste system that was used to separate people of different social classes. Within the caste system there were categories, Brahmins (priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), Vaishyas (farmers, traders, merchants) and Shudras (labourers). There was also another group the Dalits (outcasts) known as the untouchables that were so low in the caste that they were not even considered part of it. Once you were born into a caste, there was no moving between castes.

The top 10 newspapers in India are the Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jargan, Amar Ujala, The Times of India, Hindustan, Malayala Manorama, Eenadu, Rajasthan Patrika, Daily Thanthi and Mathrubhumi respectively.

According to the Department of City Planning, Glen Oaks-Floral Park-New Hyde Park has the highest population of immigrants from India. Other neighborhoods in which Immigrants from India have settled include Bellerose, Queens Village, Briarwood-Jamaica Hills, Kew Gardens Hills, Flushing, Murray Hill, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Forest Hills, Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Woodside, Hunters Point-Sunnyside-West Maspeth, and Lenox Hill-Roosevelt Island.

According to the New York Times, India’s air pollution is causing 1.1 million people to die “prematurely” each year and is only getting worse. Air pollution in India is now worse than in China.

For this beat memo I interviewed Steven DSouza, a Corporate Communications major at Baruch College. DSouza lived in India from age six to 18 and frequently visits now in his adult life. In our interview he shed light on many aspects of Indian life and culture. One particularly interesting note was that he compared the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee to President Donald Trump, as they are both “nationalists.” DSouza also said that a lot of Indians support president Trump. DSouza also mentioned an environmental crisis in his hometown of Mumbai. He said that when he is there and he checks the weather on his phone, there is always an alert of “smoke” due to heavy industrialization. There is also little to no regulation for waste management for dumping dyes into water systems.

Quotes:

“When I’m there and I check the weather, my phone says 80 degrees and smoke.”

“The infrastructure and roads are horrible. Picture New York but much worse.”

“Northern India is said to be more dangerous for women.”

 

Contacts:

 

Public Health foundation of India

Delhi NCR

Phone: 01244722900/01244781400

Email: [email protected]

 

National Green Tribunal

New Delhi

Email: [email protected]

 

International Planned Parenthood Federation

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: www.ippf.org

IPPF South Asia Region

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.ippfsar.org

 

Sources:

 

http://www.census.gov/topics/population.html

 

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/world/asia/indias-air-pollution-rivals-china-as-worlds-deadliest.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FIndia&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection&_r=0

 

https://www.stateofglobalair.org/data

 

(https://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/nyc-population/newest-new-yorkers-2013.page

BBC or the British Broadcasting Corporation is a public service broadcaster founded in 1922 by John Reith. It was established by the Royal Charter and is primarily funded by an annual television license fee. In Britain, any households or companies receiving live television broadcasts get charged with this fee.

BBC is known for their news coverage ranging from topics of politics to science and is famous for its radio broadcasting stations. They also produce feature articles and other forms of media. Although BBC may be less biased than commercial broadcasting networks here in the United States such as Fox or MSNBC, they have been accused of having a slightly left leaning undertone.

BBC has an international news channel called “BBC World News.” BBC World News is owned by BBC Global News, which, is funded by subscription revenues not the license fee. It covers The United States, Canada, Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. It offers news in 32 different languages. BBC is a highly trusted organization, however it has had some significant controversies. During the 1950’s Red Scare President Winston Churchill sent a letter to MI5, a British Intelligence Agency, asking to investigate communist sympathizers among the BBC staff. More recently, in 2015 the director of BBC, Tony Hall, refused to call ISIS “Daesh” or “ISIL” after demands from 120 members of parliament. BBC’s reasoning for this was that those alternative terms would not preserve their impartiality.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/02/bbc-rejects-mps-calls-to-refer-to-islamic-state-as-daesh