English Rewind - News Words: Activist

Hello! Catherine here from BBC Learning English.

Just so you know, this programme is from the BBC Learning English archive

and was originally broadcast in November 2009 on our website.

And now, on with the show.

News Words from the BBC.

Here's Clare Arthurs.

Today, I'm going to talk about activism, from the verb 'to act'.

A word you'll often hear in the news is 'activist'.

It's someone who acts for a cause which they believe in.

Here's an example from a BBC News broadcast.

Two peace activists have admitted breaking into an RAF base

to try to stop B-52 bombers taking off for Iraq.

Activists usually want to achieve change,

so you'll hear words like 'campaign', 'protest' and 'demonstrate'.

These students want political change.

Police in Nepal have arrested around 30 student activists

protesting against King Gyanendra's seizure of power in February.

And these conservationists want to protect a bird.

The Roman Catholic Church and environmental activists

are trying to encourage worshippers at today's Palm Sunday celebrations

to help save the yellow-eared parrot in Colombia.

You'd need to hear more to know what these activists want.

In the last few days, radical jobless activists

have protested outside Shell service stations.

We might assume they're campaigning to get their jobs back.

You might assume that the man in the next example is a human rights activist.

One of Cuba's best-known activists, Oswaldo Payá,

told the BBC the world had a moral duty to help the dissidents.

In BBC news reports,

we make it clear when a label like 'activist' is opinion or fact.

The leader of the Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams,

has called on the Church's senior clerics

to put aside their differences over homosexuality,

for the sake of the Church as a whole.

He criticised what he called the "desperate activism"

by which some were pursuing their aims.

Can you tell if the phrase 'desperate activism' was an opinion?

We indicated it was by using the phrase 'what he called'.

News Words, from the BBC.