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Our plans for BBC World Service in the next Charter

Francesca Unsworth

Director, BBC World Service

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People from our Iranian audience recently gave BBC Persian’s editor their views on the BBC. ‘The BBC’s PTV (Persian TV) is part of our family life – the presenters and reporters are like our family members’, said one. Another had an even more impressive message. ‘By broadcasting debate programmes, BBC PTV helps democracy’, he said.

This is a bold claim to make about a TV channel. But in many countries, accurate, impartial news – broadcast without fear or favour, representing different points of view, and holding the powerful to account – is a rare commodity. 

The Iranian authorities don’t make things easy for the Persian service.  BBC Persian journalists are banned from Iran. Their families are subject to harassment and taken in for questioning. Government officials are forbidden from speaking to BBC Persian TV.  Our satellite signal is periodically jammed.  And yet still, 12 million people in Iran – half of those with a satellite – watch the BBC.  That’s the power of the World Service.

On Monday we set out our proposals for the next ten years of the BBC, including our vision for how the World Service can address the democratic deficit of impartial news around the world.

In the past ten years, the world of news media has changed dramatically. Digital platforms have opened up many new possibilities, yet many places, most obviously Russia, have much less media freedom. There has been a growth in big state-sponsored news organisations with billions at their disposal, speaking in the voice of their funders. 

So we are proposing to bring the World Service to more countries, through radio, TV and digital, especially those countries where impartial news is in short supply. This includes a new short-wave daily news service for North Korea and short- and medium-wave news for Eritrea and Ethiopia.

We plan a bigger digital presence in Russia through platforms such as YouTube and its Russian equivalent Rutube, together with TV bulletins for neighbouring states. And we’ll look into the feasibility of a satellite TV channel in Russian.

We would like to expand our digital and mobile offers in Nigeria and India. The BBC’s Arabic Service would offer more regional content to better serve its audiences with increased coverage of North Africa and the Middle East.

We think the World Service brings a great deal to the BBC – and to Britain.  It is our most important cultural export, with one in every 16 people around the world using BBC news every week. The respect and affection people around the world have for the BBC improves Britain’s standing in the world.

Licence-fee payers benefit from the World Service – either through listening directly, as millions do, or through the expertise and insight World Service journalists now bring to British news bulletins.

But let’s be clear – there are limits to how much British households can and should be expected to fund international news services.

So let me reassure licence fee payers that none of these proposed new services will place any extra demand on the licence fee.  It’s completely wrong to suggest that new plans for North Korea, Russia, or anywhere else would impact on any licence-fee funded channels or services in the UK. 

We will discuss with the Government their potential interest in investing in the World Service.  We know they recognise the World Service’s importance for this country – and the world.

And we’ve pledged to match any extra public funding we receive with ‘self-help’ of our own through increased advertising and sponsorship for our global news services, (although you will see neither in the UK).

There are some who’ve been questioning whether these new services are feasible or will reach their intended audiences.  Good questions – the BBC suffers censorship attempts - blocking, jamming and blackouts – throughout the world.  And yet we reach 283m people a week.

The world is changing fast.  Digital platforms have recently allowed us to reach new audiences – like those for the Thai Facebook-only pop-up news service we set up after the military coup last year.  Or our Whatsapp emergency news service in West Africa established as a response to the Ebola outbreak.

Sometimes, it’s more traditional technology which will have better results. We’re proposing a news programme on shortwave radio as we believe this is the most effective way of reaching people in North Korea. We’ll explore how best we can reach more people in Russia.

Above all, we cannot begin to address a democratic deficit without trying to reach some of the least free countries in the world – countries like North Korea and Eritrea.

Our loyal Iranian audiences show us that, despite the best efforts of the authorities, people still find their way to the BBC – repeatedly rated the world’s most trusted news source.  We want this to continue for the next ten years and beyond.

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