What would we lose if Channel 4 News – the iconic, early-evening bulletin hosted by Jon Snow, Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Cathy Newman – were to be abruptly closed down?

In my view, the programme combines an independent spirit with a lengthy format that allows for greater context and more nuanced debate than its rivals manage.

Others agree. The bulletin has won 28 awards this year, including the recent Rory Peck news features award for Zmnako Ismael’s “incredibly moving” footage of Yazidis fleeing Isis, and Amnesty’s TV News award for Jackie Long’s film inside the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre.

And yet the demise of Channel 4 News is a realistic prospect, given the Government’s interest in privatising its parent broadcaster. David Abraham, Channel 4’s chief executive, has warned that, since a sell-off was mooted, ministers have been “courted by international buyers and potentially by domestic asset strippers”.

The outgoing C4 chair, Lord Burns, identifies the bulletin as a first victim of private ownership.

“It is no secret that, as an economic proposition, Channel 4 News doesn’t really do terribly well – you can see this by the absence of adverts in the breaks,” he told last week’s Voice of the Listener and Viewer 2015 conference. “I struggle to see any alternative ownership that would be able to put on an hour-long news programme at that point in the day and of the quality it is.”

In the newsroom last Thursday there was little sense of impending doom. Channel 4 News operates from bespoke studios at ITN’s building on London’s Gray’s Inn Road. Its tight-knit team of 130 (the BBC has an editorial army of 7,000) is full of strong characters. I learned that Snow had ordered the ITN Christmas tree in the atrium to be chopped back by five feet because the star and bauble-laden upper branches were a visible backdrop for the programme’s cameras and, in the view of the veteran presenter, compromised the show’s integrity in broadcasting current affairs to an audience of all faiths and none.

An hour before going on air, Guru-Murthy was at his office desk, working on his 40 seconds of headlines for the top of the show. With RAF jets having completed their first mission against Isis targets in Syria, following the tense Commons vote on military action the previous evening, there was no shortage of news.

But the purpose of Channel 4 News, scheduled after the early-evening news programmes of the BBC and ITV, is to “show people that we’ve got something different”, says Guru-Murthy. Tonight, that means an exclusive interview, landed by deputy digital editor Brian Whelan, with the bumbling leader of the new UK version of the German right-wing movement Pegida. Another scoop, negotiated by the show’s deputy editor, Shaminder Nahal, is a live interview by Newman with Labour moderate MP Tristram Hunt, his first since Jeremy Corbyn became party leader.

Guru-Murthy has pre-recorded an interview with Barack Obama’s senior strategist in countering Isis, Brett McGurk. The presenter has become known for his combative style, ruffling the plumage of interviewees from Robert Downey Jnr (who stormed out) to Mr Corbyn.

Culture news in pictures Show all 33 1 /33 Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS Culture news in pictures 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS Culture news in pictures 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS Culture news in pictures 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! 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The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images Culture news in pictures 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty Culture news in pictures 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images Culture news in pictures 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA Culture news in pictures 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA Culture news in pictures 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. 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The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA Culture news in pictures 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA Culture news in pictures 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images Culture news in pictures 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu Culture news in pictures 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP Culture news in pictures 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images Culture news in pictures 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images Culture news in pictures 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP Culture news in pictures 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA Culture news in pictures 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA Culture news in pictures 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 Culture news in pictures 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA Culture news in pictures 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS Culture news in pictures 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures Culture news in pictures

“I think it is fair to say everybody from any political grouping regards us with a fair amount of wariness,” he says. “My interview with Corbyn was the only one since he stood for leadership where he was pushed to the point of losing his temper.”

Channel 4 News won’t interview Piers Morgan until he accepts questioning on phone-hacking during his editing of the Daily Mirror, or Julian Assange until he agrees to speak about the sex charges against him. The previous weekend, as The Independent revealed, Channel 4 News pulled out of an interview with the Prince of Wales on climate change after Clarence House produced a 15-page contract demanding a role in the editorial process and the right to withdraw the interview if it didn’t like the final product.

Chief correspondent Alex Thomson, who has done the interview with the Pegida UK leader (a former soldier identifying himself as “Tim”), accepts that there is a potential “compliance issue” with the piece.

“Technically, we are giving three minutes 12 seconds to a political movement and there’s no balancing voice.”

He asks editor Ben de Pear to view the unedited “rushes”.

But Tim is so inarticulate that Thomson says: “I found myself watching between my fingers – and I did the interview.”

It’s hardly a party broadcast.

The story is a coup because Pegida UK is a new vehicle for Tommy Robinson, who founded then quit the far-right English Defence League. Thomson says Luton-based Robinson and his followers “represent a constituency ... they’re living in places, let’s be honest, where journalists don’t live”. But Pegida UK’s calls for a five-year ban on Muslim immigration and building mosques makes nonsense of its claim to be moderate. “My view is they give themselves more than enough rope to hang themselves,” he says.

By the weekend, “Tim” had resigned.

Thomson, an outstanding foreign correspondent, says that the Syria raids mean that Isis will increase its efforts to “seize foreigners” reporting from the field. Syrian military intelligence “banned me for over a year” for unspecified reasons (possibly his film on military funerals in north Damascus being interrupted by a sudden firefight). He is “now unbanned” and keen to return.

He talks of heading to Kurdish Peshmerga-held territory to “percolate around with those guys” or to “run the gauntlet” of Bashar al-Assad’s strict media controls. But Isis, he says, has already moved its leaders to Sirte on the Libyan coast. Even Thomson would have to “think really hard” about following the story to Libya: “I’ve got kids – I want to keep a head on my shoulders.”

As the show goes live, programme editor Becky Emmett has to be highly skilled in giving due prominence to an eclectic mix of stories. The hour rattles past. Sitting on a desk, De Pear holds a debrief session and complains McGurk “went on and on” in his six-minute description of Syria. It should have been two minutes shorter, he says. Thomson is praised for playing “a blinder” in his exchange with “the biggest idiot who has ever appeared on television”. A live spat between a far-left activist and Labour MP Melanie Onn over online trolling of the MPs who voted for bombing was good television, the team agrees. De Pear concludes that the show was “a really compelling watch”.

Let’s hope it continues that way.

Nothing is new in wartime propaganda

In times of war we need a heightened awareness of propaganda, as the new edition of History of War magazine reminds us by debunking the myth that Polish generals deployed mounted lancers against Nazi tanks in the Second World War. This classic story of old tech versus new tech has become accepted fact – it even made it into the ITV epic series The World at War.

The story took hold after Italian journalists were invited to tour a battlefield at Krojanty, shown Polish horses and cavalrymen killed in a counter-attack, and were told that they had charged the tanks. In reality, Polish cavalry fought from a distance with anti-tank rifles, but the tale of the foolish charge, with its implications of intellectual inferiority, suited the Nazis. From Isis films to the sales pitches of the global arms trade, we are still being subjected to similar techniques.

The media’s religious literacy must improve

The lack of religious literacy in the media contributed to us being caught off guard by the rise of Islamic extremism in Britain. We mocked figures such as the “Tottenham Ayatollah”, Omar Bakri Muhammad. I remember laughing at Jon Ronson’s 1997 film on the Syrian cleric as he staged jihadi training in a Crawley scout hut.

Yet, all the while, young people were enchanted by this ludicrous character’s sinister message, and hundreds of his al-Muhajiroun devoted themselves to violent jihad. Channel 4’s recent Isis: The British Women Supporters Unveiled showed the enduring influence of a man referred to by one fanatic as “our Sheikh”.

Serious commentators idly dismiss Isis as “nihilists”. It is a group that bases its actions on a medieval interpretation of the Koran. They might be barbarous but they are devout believers. Too often the media lumps all Muslims together as terror threats, dismisses Christians as homophobes and Buddhists and Hindus as yoga teachers. Even in a soundbite culture, we need greater sophistication.