Claire Jones
Radio
Claire has a variety of experience in presenting, reporting and producing longform radio documentaries that appeal to national and international audiences.
Examples include:
'Finding Faith On A Warship'
BBC Faith and Ethics reporter Claire Jones has been granted exclusive access on board British warship HMS Northumberland while on deployment to the North Sea.
As Russian troops continue to invade Ukraine, Claire explores faith on a warship, and whether armed forces personnel can ‘find their faith’ in times of trouble or unrest.
The military chaplain onboard the warship is Reverend Dr Louisa Pittman, one of three female chaplains in the Royal Navy.
She caters for all faiths, never carries a weapon, and holds no rank so the captain or a junior rating can speak freely.
Claire follows her as she carries out her duties and hears from sailors onboard about what their faith means to them in times of conflict.
'My Hijab Or My Sport'
It took Salimata Sylla three hours to get to the away fixture she was due to play with her basketball teammates from the Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers, but it was only a few minutes before the match started that she learned she was going to sit the game out on the bench.
Despite playing for more than 10 years in the French Championship, the federation that controls her sport decided to apply the rule that forbids female basketball players from wearing the hijab.
Her coach describes her as the backbone of the team and an ambassador for the sport. She has been a face of basketball for many big brands on social media. And the hijab she wears is sold by mainstream sportswear manufacturers.
Salimata’s ban is the latest in country where the right to wear a hijab has long divided opinion. But in her case, it raises an interesting dilemma for France. While domestic sporting federations enforce their ban on the hijab, their international counterparts have no such ban in place. So what will happen, Salimata wonders, when the Olympics come to Paris next year?
Reporter Claire Jones goes to Paris to meet Salimata to find out how she can resolve her wish to express her Muslim faith by wearing a hijab with her desire to play the sport she loves.
'Swiss Christians And Conversion Therapy'
There’s a debate raging in Switzerland over a potential nationwide ban on so-called conversion therapy. We meet Christians whose lives the procedure has changed forever. They explain how growing up in an Evangelical community, they struggled with their faith and sexuality from a young age – driving them to seek help.
The controversial practice is used around the world to try to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
In Switzerland, common methods include prayers and talking therapies but elsewhere practitioners use exorcisms, electroshock therapy and even physical and sexual violence. These so-called treatments are something that people of all genders undergo. The issue has become a hot topic in in Switzerland, and the parliamentary process to potentially enact a nationwide ban is underway. But there is still a long way to go.
Claire Jones meets the Christians working to change the law, and those who are against a legislative ban.
