Dispatches editor departs as new tender results announced

Kevin Sutcliffe, the editor of Channel 4's Dispatches is leaving after 10 years in the role, and two months after the announcement of a format change for the documentary programme.

In a statement, Sutcliffe, who first joined the broadcaster's news and current affairs team in 2002, said: "After 10 fantastic years of troublemaking for Channel 4 I have decided it is time to look for new projects and challenges.

"I have been lucky to have worked on an incredible range of programming with hugely talented people and production companies.

"I have also enjoyed Channel 4's unstinting support when Dispatches has taken on the biggest subjects and ruffled the feathers of the rich and powerful. I'm pleased to be handing over a reshaped Dispatches fit for the challenges of the digital world."

The revamp of Dispatches has seen the series increase from 30 to 40 programmes a year, with many of those to run for half an hour instead of an hour.

Channel 4's head of news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, added that Sutcliffe has "been a kind and considerate colleague who we will miss greatly".

In a release, Byrne also confirmed the four production companies which have been named as the first to be given contracts for the programme to help fulfill its aim to "provide paid work and mentoring as part of the Channel 4 Investigative Journalism Training Scheme", also announced last year.

The four production houses who will take on the trainees are Blakeway Productions, October Films, Nine Lives Media and ITN Productions.

"The awarding of these contracts opens an exciting new chapter for Dispatches," Byrne says in the release.

"We were delighted that 19 production companies applied and it was a difficult task to get it down to four. They all gave us excellent presentations on a range of very strong journalism which gives me great confidence in the future of Dispatches."

ITN Productions was behind Channel 4's documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, shown in June, which prompted 118 complaints to Ofcom over impartiality and misleading and offensive material.

Ofcom ruled that the programme was not in breach of any regulations.

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