Leaving the mothership...

It's my last week as a full-time reporter at the BBC! Although they are compelling reasons, I'm not leaving because of slipping standards, racial discrimination or even dodgy phone-ins...

Actually, I think the BBC is a fantastic broadcaster. But in a multimedia, high-technology world, it's starting to make less sense for journalists like me to stick to one employer.

I was trained by ITN and BBC News to produce, film and edit as a lone-working video and audio reporter. Although I'm one of the first generation of journalists who are multi-skilled in this way, in the long-run it is likely to be the way most of us work. And if we want to have the biggest possible impact on the world, then we need to make the most of all the different kinds of platforms, from the Internet, to emerging digital channels.

Consequently, from next week I'll be science writing and making independent films for a plethora of media outlets.

Watch this space for my first big freelance project, which is a documentary about nuclear power...