World Service must be fully state-funded to counter disinformation, say BBC bosses
Ministers must take on the full costs of the BBC's World Service to counter an 'aggressive' disinformation drive by Russia around the globe, BBC bosses are preparing to argue.
Amid concerns about the scale of state-backed content after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, senior BBC figures believe it is 'undeniable' that the government should shoulder the costs of championing 'western values' via the financially strained World Service.
There have been concerns from within the BBC that Russian and Chinese state media are spending an 'eyewatering' £8bn a year, compared with the World Service's £400m budget.
'They're doing it for a reason,' said a BBC source. 'The views and opinions of nations around the world strategically matter. It's only the BBC that has the global reach to actually do something about this. We believe in western values and they are under attack.'
There is also evidence that Russia has been targeting former World Service audiences where budget cuts have forced the BBC to retreat. When the BBC's Arabic radio service withdrew from Lebanon, its radio frequency was taken over by the state-owned Russian Sputnik Radio.
Figures inside the BBC also think it is unfair that licence fee-payers in the UK pay for content delivered to audiences overseas.
The push to hand the costs of the World Service back to the government is an early skirmish in what are set to be lengthy negotiations over its remit and funding as part of the corporation's charter renewal process. Those talks are scheduled to run until 2027.
Jonathan Munro, the global director of BBC News, said: 'The BBC World Service is a uniquely valuable asset that provides trusted independent and impartial news to audiences around the world.
'As press freedom drastically reduces, disinformation thrives and state-backed media advance aggressively, its role is increasingly important. We need a sustainable, long term funding solution that enables the World Service to meet these global challenges and invest in services for the future.'
Before 2014, the government held sole responsibility for funding the World Service, an international news service available on radio, television and online that provides news and analysis around the world in more than 40 languages. However, as part of the cost-cutting measures pursued by the coalition government from 2010, the costs of providing the service were loaded on to the corporation itself.
Under the latest funding settlement, about two-thirds of the costs of the World Service come from the licence fee, with the rest made up from government grants.
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said recently that she believed the World Service's funding model was unsustainable. She said that with the 'challenges in the world being so great', successive governments have had to step in with additional funding to safeguard it.
The World Service has already had to make cuts this year as the BBC struggles with the two-year freeze in the licence fee. It was announced in January that 130 jobs would go as part of plans to save about £6m. It included cuts to BBC Monitoring, which analyses news from media around the world.
While BBC bosses think they have a strong case, persuading the Treasury to find the extra money is a tall order. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has left herself little room for manoeuvre after ruling out any more large tax increases and her self-imposed fiscal rules significantly restrict her spending options.
Meanwhile, she has already had to accommodate Keir Starmer's decision to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – worth an additional £6bn a year – by slashing international aid. The prime minister announced the move before his meeting with Donald Trump in Washington last month.
Government sources said that all issues relating to the BBC's funding would be examined as part of the charter renewal process. They also said the last spending review included 31% increase in the World Service's government funding for 2025-26, to £137m. The figure was £20m less than the BBC had asked for during negotiations.
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: 'The government highly values the BBC World Service, which reaches a global audience of 320 million, and remains the world's most trusted international news service.'
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