By Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter 10 December 2022 • 7:00pm
On the face of it, the daughter of one of Britain’s richest men seems an unlikely candidate for charitable help.
But Azadeh Moshiri has credited her time at a charity aimed at helping disadvantaged journalists for securing her new job at the BBC.
Ms Moshiri, whose father is best known for his ownership of Everton football club, took part in the mentoring scheme of the John Schofield Trust, which aims to improve the social mobility of journalists.
She has recently been promoted to an “on air reporter and senior journalist” for BBC World News. She said her career “would never have happened” without the charity’s mentoring scheme, despite her mother being a familiar name on the BBC, Sky and CNN.
Ms Moshiri’s father is Farhad Moshiri, who bought Everton, one of the grandest names in English football, in 2016 and is worth, according to Forbes, £2.4 billion. His reign at Everton has been hugely controversial, with the club on its seventh permanent manager in six years and just hovering above the relegation zone, having just avoided the drop last season.
Mr Moshiri, an accountant by training, made his fortune after going into business in the 1990s with Alisher Usmanov, a Russian oligarch who was placed under UK sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine. Mr Moshiri announced in the immediate aftermath that he was severing all business links to the oligarch.
Ms Moshiri joined the John Schofield Trust mentoring scheme in June 2018. The charity was set up by the family and friends of John Schofield, a journalist who was killed while working for the BBC in Croatia in 1995. About a year later, Ms Moshiri joined the BBC as a junior producer through the standard recruitment process before landing the on-air job earlier this year. She had previously worked for CNN as a producer.
Quoted in a press release issued by the charity in April, Ms Moshiri said: “My time at both CNN and BBC has offered me incredible opportunities to learn and grow. This chance to report, at an organisation I’m so proud of, would never have happened without the mentors I’ve had along the way.”
Ms Moshiri, who is in her early 30s, went to school in Paris and to Duke University in North Carolina. She was mentored at the charity by Matthew Amroliwala, the BBC newsreader who presents a daily programme on BBC World News.
Ms Moshiri’s mother, Nazenin Ansari, is an eminent broadcast journalist in her own right and has provided analysis on Iran, where she was born, for the BBC, CNN and sky news among others.
The charity said that at the time Ms Moshiri was accepted on its mentoring scheme, its remit was to support young journalists and that it changed its “focus” to become a “social mobility charity” a year later in 2019.
According to the current John Schofield Trust mission statement, its stated aim is to tackle “social mobility in UK broadcast newsrooms” to benefit “young people who may never have considered journalism as a career”.
It adds: “Our work aims to help break down the barriers to entry and progression in the
industry, and to unlock the potential of disadvantaged young people across the UK.
“We want to make a real difference by developing the potential of people who come from less privileged backgrounds and may find it harder to climb the ladder.”
Social media posts on Twitter show the charity was already regularly promoting the need for greater social mobility among broadcasters before then. In April 2017, for example, the charity tweeted: “The Trust aims to improve greater social diversity for the next generation of journalists.”
And then a few weeks later: “The Trust aims to improve diversity & social mobility for all news broadcasters & recognises this has to start from a young age. #BBCpay.”
Ms Moshiri said in a statement: “I applied to the John Schofield Trust according to the criteria and process at the time, whilst working at CNN.”
David Stenhouse, the charity’s chief executive, said: “The John Schofield Trust was founded by the family and friends of the BBC journalist John Schofield who was killed whilst reporting for Radio 4’s The World Tonight during the Yugoslav Civil War.
“Until 2019 the Trust’s remit was to support the development of talented young broadcast journalists.
“In 2019 the Trust changed its focus to become a social mobility charity which welcomes applications from candidates who come from backgrounds which are under-represented in UK journalism. In 2021 and 2022 the cohorts selected by the Trust lead the journalism industry in terms of socio-economic diversity, disability and a range of other criteria.”
He added: “The Trust treats all applications as confidential and does not comment on individual applications. It takes great care and effort to ensure that its selection process is rigorous and fair.
“In 2020 the early career mentoring scheme was significantly changed to align it with our revised mission as a social mobility charity.”
Don’t bother reading it’s another Telegraph misleading headline. She joined when it was open to everyone and before the charity changed their mission to social mobility.
Sounds like her daddy had a word with a few folks to make sure she got a spot at the BBC. Normal, poor folk don’t get such backscratching help.
I dont even need to fucking read the article.
It is a good thing the daughter of a billionaire is trying to pursue a career at all. Especially one as a journalist in the BBC of all places.
She could be working in any of the other semi-corrupt outlets using her connections and status. But she’s working at the BBC. It has its faults, but I dont give a fuck about some idiots opinions on how she was clearly born with a silver spoon.
Props to her.
She’s the daughter of a billionaire, she isn’t a billionaire. What’s wrong with her creating her own career and life without the help of her dad?
Calling Everton one of the grandest names in English football is a bit much. Accrington Stanley far grander.
The struggling daughters of billionaires deserve a leg up in life.
On the one hand, it’s heartening to see a woman from a fabulously wealthy family try to carve out her own niche in the world.
On the other, in times which are incredibly challenging for mere proles, it could be argued that somebody who doesn’t need the work probably ought not to be depriving somebody who does need it of the opportunity.
I can say with confidence that were I in her position I would happily and with much merriment be assisting my compatriots by rattling through as many women and psychoactive substances as humanly possible whilst not troubling any employers. Ever.
What a hatchet job of a headline.
She’s worked her way up into a good job, didn’t use her father influence, didn’t pay her way or get favours up the ladder but because she happens to be from a wealthy family that should be held against her.
I don’t really want to use the race card but had this been some not of colour there would be no story here.
They’re taking the piss aren’t they. Disadvantaged background? A life of privilege and wealth, connections and education opportunities and she gets help from a fucking charity for the disadvantaged. Shit.
So the Torygraph is lying again to stoke up class wars. What a surprise.
*’The charity said that at the time Ms Moshiri was accepted on its mentoring scheme, its remit was to support young journalists and that it changed its focus to become a social mobility charity a year later in 2019’*
**BULLSHIT STORY**
Why are all UK newspapers so obsessed with smearing the BBC, **their largest commercial competitor**?
Yet another reason to not pay TV licence. fuck them BBC and their russian oligarch -made billionaires who they openly support.
The interesting bit isnt the charity, it’s the starter job as a producer at CNN before leveraging that to a job at the BBC. Without which she would likely not have got through the standard recruitment procedure for a producer role there.
Better she works for a public service broadcaster and has the ability to do something good than the billionaire owner of the Telegraph Frederick Barclay, who every day is committed to making this country only work for the wealthy.
A lot of BBC hate on here but don’t forget the Tory party has effectively silenced the BBC from criticising the government by installing their guys as director general and others throughout the corporation and are still running with Dominic Cummings plan.
From New Statesman 18/01/21:
“He (Dominic Cummings) called the BBC a “mortal enemy” and “determined propagandist” whose “very existence should be the subject of a very intense and well-funded campaign”. He continued: “There are three things that the right needs to happen in terms of communications…1) the undermining of the BBC’s credibility; 2) the creation of a Fox News equivalent/talk radio (GB News) shows/loggers etc to shift the centre of gravity; 3) the end of the ban on TV political advertising.”
Your thoughts on the BBC are by design, 20 years of attacks from papers like the Telegraph and being gutted by the Tories
I pray the BBC can survive until we hopefully one day have anyone else in power. Public service broadcasters need to be protected, they are there for us and and seeing the independence of one being stripped by our government has been tragic to witness.
Well she could have chosen to be a socialite and just sponged off the family but she is trying to have a career in a fairly normal job so good for her
[deleted]
why does she need a job if daddy is a billionaire 🤔
I would give my family money so they didn’t have to work 😎
The BBC would never employ a journo from the lower classes. This method allows everyone involved to feel good about themselves under the impression that she has ‘earned’ her place.
This seems to be a vehicle to legitimise her ascent. I’m sure she will hold many important positions all starting from here, a supposedly legitimate position not acquired via wealth and contacts at all.
Hey hey, chil down. Maybe it was a downshifting mobility.
Does anyone else find it heartening that a billionaires daughter is looking for a job and not lying around having milk baths like Cleopatra, because I do.
I say good luck to her and hope she’s up to the job and enjoys doing it.
A Tory paper shit stirring? Surely not.
Anyone remember the good old days when some newspapers actually had a reputation for integrity?
Excluding the Mail and Sun that is – they’ve always been for cunts, by cunts.
There’s a lot of hatred and discrimination towards billionaires….rightly so but hey, when you exploit a situation /s
The media is one of the least social mobile industries to get in. Its essentially closed to poor working class people. It’s full of middle class people and nepotism.
You have to be willing to do unpaid internships, in London, which means you need either family in London who can support you, or family with money who can support you while you live in London without a wage.
I know several people who have gone into the industry, and they all had one or both of the above.
As someone from a working class background, it’s not an industry I could ever realistically pursue. It’s rather sad really.
This is nothing new. Annabelle Grace Fortescue-Mousebrain needs something to do other then play the violin badly
People explaining the context doesn’t excuse anything, since billionaires shouldn’t even exist so it’s still an insult to any charity.
28 comments
By Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter 10 December 2022 • 7:00pm
On the face of it, the daughter of one of Britain’s richest men seems an unlikely candidate for charitable help.
But Azadeh Moshiri has credited her time at a charity aimed at helping disadvantaged journalists for securing her new job at the BBC.
Ms Moshiri, whose father is best known for his ownership of Everton football club, took part in the mentoring scheme of the John Schofield Trust, which aims to improve the social mobility of journalists.
She has recently been promoted to an “on air reporter and senior journalist” for BBC World News. She said her career “would never have happened” without the charity’s mentoring scheme, despite her mother being a familiar name on the BBC, Sky and CNN.
Ms Moshiri’s father is Farhad Moshiri, who bought Everton, one of the grandest names in English football, in 2016 and is worth, according to Forbes, £2.4 billion. His reign at Everton has been hugely controversial, with the club on its seventh permanent manager in six years and just hovering above the relegation zone, having just avoided the drop last season.
Mr Moshiri, an accountant by training, made his fortune after going into business in the 1990s with Alisher Usmanov, a Russian oligarch who was placed under UK sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine. Mr Moshiri announced in the immediate aftermath that he was severing all business links to the oligarch.
Ms Moshiri joined the John Schofield Trust mentoring scheme in June 2018. The charity was set up by the family and friends of John Schofield, a journalist who was killed while working for the BBC in Croatia in 1995. About a year later, Ms Moshiri joined the BBC as a junior producer through the standard recruitment process before landing the on-air job earlier this year. She had previously worked for CNN as a producer.
Quoted in a press release issued by the charity in April, Ms Moshiri said: “My time at both CNN and BBC has offered me incredible opportunities to learn and grow. This chance to report, at an organisation I’m so proud of, would never have happened without the mentors I’ve had along the way.”
Ms Moshiri, who is in her early 30s, went to school in Paris and to Duke University in North Carolina. She was mentored at the charity by Matthew Amroliwala, the BBC newsreader who presents a daily programme on BBC World News.
Ms Moshiri’s mother, Nazenin Ansari, is an eminent broadcast journalist in her own right and has provided analysis on Iran, where she was born, for the BBC, CNN and sky news among others.
The charity said that at the time Ms Moshiri was accepted on its mentoring scheme, its remit was to support young journalists and that it changed its “focus” to become a “social mobility charity” a year later in 2019.
According to the current John Schofield Trust mission statement, its stated aim is to tackle “social mobility in UK broadcast newsrooms” to benefit “young people who may never have considered journalism as a career”.
It adds: “Our work aims to help break down the barriers to entry and progression in the
industry, and to unlock the potential of disadvantaged young people across the UK.
“We want to make a real difference by developing the potential of people who come from less privileged backgrounds and may find it harder to climb the ladder.”
Social media posts on Twitter show the charity was already regularly promoting the need for greater social mobility among broadcasters before then. In April 2017, for example, the charity tweeted: “The Trust aims to improve greater social diversity for the next generation of journalists.”
And then a few weeks later: “The Trust aims to improve diversity & social mobility for all news broadcasters & recognises this has to start from a young age. #BBCpay.”
Ms Moshiri said in a statement: “I applied to the John Schofield Trust according to the criteria and process at the time, whilst working at CNN.”
David Stenhouse, the charity’s chief executive, said: “The John Schofield Trust was founded by the family and friends of the BBC journalist John Schofield who was killed whilst reporting for Radio 4’s The World Tonight during the Yugoslav Civil War.
“Until 2019 the Trust’s remit was to support the development of talented young broadcast journalists.
“In 2019 the Trust changed its focus to become a social mobility charity which welcomes applications from candidates who come from backgrounds which are under-represented in UK journalism. In 2021 and 2022 the cohorts selected by the Trust lead the journalism industry in terms of socio-economic diversity, disability and a range of other criteria.”
He added: “The Trust treats all applications as confidential and does not comment on individual applications. It takes great care and effort to ensure that its selection process is rigorous and fair.
“In 2020 the early career mentoring scheme was significantly changed to align it with our revised mission as a social mobility charity.”
Don’t bother reading it’s another Telegraph misleading headline. She joined when it was open to everyone and before the charity changed their mission to social mobility.
Sounds like her daddy had a word with a few folks to make sure she got a spot at the BBC. Normal, poor folk don’t get such backscratching help.
I dont even need to fucking read the article.
It is a good thing the daughter of a billionaire is trying to pursue a career at all. Especially one as a journalist in the BBC of all places.
She could be working in any of the other semi-corrupt outlets using her connections and status. But she’s working at the BBC. It has its faults, but I dont give a fuck about some idiots opinions on how she was clearly born with a silver spoon.
Props to her.
She’s the daughter of a billionaire, she isn’t a billionaire. What’s wrong with her creating her own career and life without the help of her dad?
Calling Everton one of the grandest names in English football is a bit much. Accrington Stanley far grander.
The struggling daughters of billionaires deserve a leg up in life.
On the one hand, it’s heartening to see a woman from a fabulously wealthy family try to carve out her own niche in the world.
On the other, in times which are incredibly challenging for mere proles, it could be argued that somebody who doesn’t need the work probably ought not to be depriving somebody who does need it of the opportunity.
I can say with confidence that were I in her position I would happily and with much merriment be assisting my compatriots by rattling through as many women and psychoactive substances as humanly possible whilst not troubling any employers. Ever.
What a hatchet job of a headline.
She’s worked her way up into a good job, didn’t use her father influence, didn’t pay her way or get favours up the ladder but because she happens to be from a wealthy family that should be held against her.
I don’t really want to use the race card but had this been some not of colour there would be no story here.
They’re taking the piss aren’t they. Disadvantaged background? A life of privilege and wealth, connections and education opportunities and she gets help from a fucking charity for the disadvantaged. Shit.
So the Torygraph is lying again to stoke up class wars. What a surprise.
*’The charity said that at the time Ms Moshiri was accepted on its mentoring scheme, its remit was to support young journalists and that it changed its focus to become a social mobility charity a year later in 2019’*
**BULLSHIT STORY**
Why are all UK newspapers so obsessed with smearing the BBC, **their largest commercial competitor**?
Yet another reason to not pay TV licence. fuck them BBC and their russian oligarch -made billionaires who they openly support.
The interesting bit isnt the charity, it’s the starter job as a producer at CNN before leveraging that to a job at the BBC. Without which she would likely not have got through the standard recruitment procedure for a producer role there.
Better she works for a public service broadcaster and has the ability to do something good than the billionaire owner of the Telegraph Frederick Barclay, who every day is committed to making this country only work for the wealthy.
A lot of BBC hate on here but don’t forget the Tory party has effectively silenced the BBC from criticising the government by installing their guys as director general and others throughout the corporation and are still running with Dominic Cummings plan.
From New Statesman 18/01/21:
“He (Dominic Cummings) called the BBC a “mortal enemy” and “determined propagandist” whose “very existence should be the subject of a very intense and well-funded campaign”. He continued: “There are three things that the right needs to happen in terms of communications…1) the undermining of the BBC’s credibility; 2) the creation of a Fox News equivalent/talk radio (GB News) shows/loggers etc to shift the centre of gravity; 3) the end of the ban on TV political advertising.”
Your thoughts on the BBC are by design, 20 years of attacks from papers like the Telegraph and being gutted by the Tories
I pray the BBC can survive until we hopefully one day have anyone else in power. Public service broadcasters need to be protected, they are there for us and and seeing the independence of one being stripped by our government has been tragic to witness.
Well she could have chosen to be a socialite and just sponged off the family but she is trying to have a career in a fairly normal job so good for her
[deleted]
why does she need a job if daddy is a billionaire 🤔
I would give my family money so they didn’t have to work 😎
The BBC would never employ a journo from the lower classes. This method allows everyone involved to feel good about themselves under the impression that she has ‘earned’ her place.
This seems to be a vehicle to legitimise her ascent. I’m sure she will hold many important positions all starting from here, a supposedly legitimate position not acquired via wealth and contacts at all.
Hey hey, chil down. Maybe it was a downshifting mobility.
Does anyone else find it heartening that a billionaires daughter is looking for a job and not lying around having milk baths like Cleopatra, because I do.
I say good luck to her and hope she’s up to the job and enjoys doing it.
A Tory paper shit stirring? Surely not.
Anyone remember the good old days when some newspapers actually had a reputation for integrity?
Excluding the Mail and Sun that is – they’ve always been for cunts, by cunts.
There’s a lot of hatred and discrimination towards billionaires….rightly so but hey, when you exploit a situation /s
The media is one of the least social mobile industries to get in. Its essentially closed to poor working class people. It’s full of middle class people and nepotism.
You have to be willing to do unpaid internships, in London, which means you need either family in London who can support you, or family with money who can support you while you live in London without a wage.
I know several people who have gone into the industry, and they all had one or both of the above.
As someone from a working class background, it’s not an industry I could ever realistically pursue. It’s rather sad really.
This is nothing new. Annabelle Grace Fortescue-Mousebrain needs something to do other then play the violin badly
People explaining the context doesn’t excuse anything, since billionaires shouldn’t even exist so it’s still an insult to any charity.