Thought Leader: Sue Mitchell

Sue Mitchell is a Senior Producer at the BBC in London and Series Producer of the investigative strand Face the Facts. Her programmes have won many awards, including a Sony Gold, the Amnesty International Broadcast of the Year, the Foreign Press Association Radio Award and the One World Media Award.

Originally a newspaper journalist, she started her career on the Yorkshire Post in the north of England where a series of undercover reports led to her being named Campaigning Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards. She then moved to regional television, working for the BBC in Leeds and later on a network series for BBC 2: The Estate. These programmes, which tracked the lives of low income families living in social housing, helped inform national discussion on child poverty and deprivation.

Since moving to the BBC headquarters in London Sue has worked on many high profile investigations. Her programmes have led to parliamentary action in areas ranging from private school funding to standards in care homes. In one case she documented the fate of a football fan left in a persistent vegetative state following a stadium collapse: the recordings led to a change in the law governing treatment of people with this condition. Another investigation tracking the export of live animals from the UK resulted in European legislation on the transportation and welfare of livestock across boundaries.

As series producer of Face the Facts Sue now oversees production of many investigative reports. A particularly noteworthy programme revealed the activities of Coca Cola in the Indian state of Kerala, where the multi-national company had built a huge bottling operation which fed directly into one of the region's most precious water resources. Local people believed massive pumping operations were contaminating the aquifer and causing village wells to run dry. Sue went to India with presenter John Waite and their findings led to the immediate closure of the plant and intense examination of the company's activities in the developing world.

The investigation into Coca Cola was the first to highlight what had been happening in Kerala: soil and water samples from wells close to the plant revealed the extent of the contamination and Sue and John Waite received the top UK Environmental Award, along with a special award for services to investigative journalism at the Audio and Music Festival. The publicity about Coca Cola led to Government action in India and scrutiny of other soft drinks manufacturers: Sue and John later went to Brazil and the United States to investigate Nestles' Pure Life brand.

Recent programmes have looked into the plight of local translators employed by the British Government in Iraq - they were denied a safe haven in the UK even though their involvement with the British army put them and their families at risk. A Face the Facts investigation led to a Government U-Turn granting translators entry to the UK.

Having produced documentaries across the world Sue has formed links with print and broadcast journalists working under various constraints and facing very different challenges and rewards. By working closely with them it's been possible to progress stories, gain local access and knowledge and give the victims of wrong-doing the best chance of gaining justice once their plight is aired.

View Sue's recent work and related links:

• TBD

[Headlines]  Sue's headlines of the past year, what questions she's grappling with and her personal big moments of 2008.

[This I Believe] Sue's essay from the 2009 Thought Leader Dialogue.