Latest news with #BBCWorldService
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The BBC World Service is a vital beacon of truth in the fight against fake news
You are right to persist in drawing attention to the need for long-term support of the BBC World Service (Editorial, 23 May). It has been an important medium for truthful reporting since the 1930s. I joined in 1967 as PA to its redoubtable editor Bob Gregson. Soon after, it became a 24-hour service, and in the years that followed it became a substantial international service. The reputation of its news and current affairs programmes and independent editorial stance was second to none, and it offered the world what was best in British culture. It was then funded by the Foreign Office. Over recent years, I have seen it shrinking in types of output, yet the importance and reputation of its news and current affairs remains as solid as ever. With the rise in misinformation and disinformation, particularly in these times of international conflict, it remains a beacon of truth. The BBC World Service, and not just the English language service, cannot be allowed to shrink away to a token voice – or worse, nothing. Funding must be found from somewhere. Britain's international reputation would be poorer without HirstBroad Oak, East Sussex Your editorial raises concerns over possible government funding cuts to the BBC World Service. By implication and in light of the government's 1 April announcement to reduce VisitBritain funding by 41%, it is clear how priorities have changed over the use of soft power to influence positive perceptions of the UK – perceptions that will ultimately prove pivotal in securing much-needed economic growth and international investment. Andrew CampbellFormer chair, Wales Tourism Alliance Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Spectator
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The best radio at the moment is on the BBC World Service
Online viewings of Conclave increased threefold following the death of Pope Francis last month. At least some of the traffic was rumoured to have come from the Vatican itself. This raises many questions, but the most pertinent for me this week is, what did the cardinals think of the carpets? Do they really have coffee machines in their rooms like Tremblay? Minibars like Bellini? Their peace spoiled by the sounds of a lift shaft as in the case of long-suffering Lawrence? If any of these details passed you by, it's worth watching the film again. In fact, after listening to an interview with the production designer, to be broadcast on BBC World Service next week, you will feel positively compelled to do so. Suzie Davies, who also designed the sets for Mr Turner and Saltburn, clearly had fun. The idea behind giving Tremblay (John Lithgow) an espresso machine was apparently to rouse suspicions, ever so subtly, as to how he obtained such a luxury; he also has a larger room than the other cardinals. Bellini has a minibar because, well, he's played by Stanley Tucci. And Lawrence is just so forbearing. With 130 job cuts looming over the World Service – in spite of an unlikely injection of cash from the autumn budget – it's a good time to sing the praises of its documentary department. The World Service is not always the obvious channel to flip to for gripping factual content, but its current listings are actually more enticing than those for Radio 4. Forthcoming programmes that caught my eye this week include Print and Shoot: The Rise of 3D-Printed Guns, How Does Heat Affect Our Health?, The Future of the Alawites and of course Designing Conclave.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Netanyahu accuses Starmer of siding with Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Sir Keir Starmer and other leaders have "effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power". He also accused British, French and Canadian leaders of siding with "mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers". In a video posted on X addressing Thursday's attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC, Netanyahu said Sir Keir, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney wanted Israel to "stand down and accept that Hamas's army of mass murderers will survive". Downing Street has declined to comment directly on Netanyahu's remarks, but pointed to Sir Keir's previous condemnation of the Washington attack on X. In that post, Sir Keir called antisemitism an "evil we must stamp out". On Monday, the UK, France and Canada condemned the expanded Israeli military operation and denial of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, and threatened concrete actions if they did not stop. Netanyahu said Hamas want to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people. "I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others." "I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer, when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you're on the wrong side of justice." "You're on the wrong side of humanity, and you're on the wrong side of history," he added. An Israeli minister, Amichai Chikli, said Sir Keir and other leaders had been "emboldening the forces of terror". Earlier, the UK prime minister said he was "horrified" by Israel's actions and called the situation in Gaza "intolerable", adding that Israel's decision to allow only a small amount of aid into Gaza was "utterly inadequate". In an interview for BBC World Service's Newshour programme, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the current Israeli administration as a "gang of thugs". He was asked about remarks by the Israeli education minister, who had said Olmert should be ashamed of a previous interview with the BBC, where he argued that what Israel was doing in Gaza was "close to a war crime". "This is nonsense, they are a group of thugs that are running the state of Israel these days and the head of the gang is Netanyahu - this is a gang of thugs," Olmert said. "Of course they are criticising me, they are defaming me, I accept it, and it will not stop me from criticising and opposing these atrocious policies." Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. At least 53,762 people, including 16,500 children, have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Gazans fear shutdown of water plants as Israel widens offensive Gaza baby sent back to war zone after open-heart surgery in Jordan Jeremy Bowen: Goodwill running out as UK, France and Canada demand Israel end Gaza offensive
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The world reveres the BBC – and so should we
Martin Bell makes an excellent case for the great importance of maintaining the BBC World Service (Having risked my life in war zones for the BBC, I know this: cuts to the World Service will be disastrous, 14 May). Shortly after reading his article, I began to read a Norwegian novel, Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated by Anne Born. It includes the telling comment: 'The good thing about the BBC's World Service … is that I can get updated on the position of countries like Jamaica, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka in a sport such as cricket; a game I have never seen played and never will see … But what I have noticed is that 'The Motherland', England, is constantly being beaten. That's always something.'Clare AddisonMarston, Oxford The cuts proposed for the BBC World Service come on top of plans to deny BBC radio programmes to anyone living outside the UK by limiting access to BBC Sounds. Yet I can listen to French, Polish and other overseas radio here in the UK with no restrictions. Why shouldn't we share our news, music and culture with the rest of the world?Eddie TulasiewiczLondon The BBC's Russian language service and its World Service (Ministers demand BBC World Service plan for cuts as aid budget slashed, 11 May) were major sources of reliable and objective news for the samizdat (self-published) material that was printed and distributed sub rosa in the Soviet Union. When I was in Russia in July 1959, I would hide copies in the pages of Pravda. When I drove through rural Russia, I saw no samizdat. There, it was the BBC's overseas services that people tuned in to. Spending £70m on broadcasts is a far more effective way of protecting democracy than spending £70m on GriffithsMonmouth Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
The Guardian
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Having risked my life in war zones for the BBC, I know this: cuts to the World Service will be disastrous
In a short space of time, the British government has made two decisions that will negatively affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of people around the world. The first was the severe cut in foreign aid announced in March. The second was the similarly severe reduction in Foreign Office support for the BBC World Service. And these from a supposedly progressive government. It doesn't seem progressive to me, but cheap and reactionary. I have double interest to declare. I am a long-term BBC loyalist who served the corporation for more than 30 years in the unquiet corners of the world, from Vietnam to Bosnia and from Belfast to Angola. My loyalty survived even such daft editorial decisions as to give an interview with Prince Harry precedence over real news. (That was little more than 10 days ago.) I have also been an MP. And since I left the House of Commons in 2001, I have served as a goodwill ambassador for Unicef UK, the British national committee of the UN children's emergency fund. It introduced me to still more war zones, in Africa and the Gulf. It was in that capacity that I fully endorsed Unicef's objections to the decision on foreign aid. We wrote at the time: 'Now is not the time to break our promise to the world's poorest and most vulnerable. Millions of children globally rely on UK aid to survive and have never needed it more.' We asked the government to rethink and to retract. It has not yet done so. The effect of the BBC cuts, to a service that was already due to cut 130 jobs this year, is harder to quantify. They reflect the unique and ambiguous position of the corporation itself. It is not by any means a governmental organisation, but its World Service is – or has been until now – largely subsidised by the Foreign Office as a projection of British interests, values and soft power. I have no problem with that: it is my opinion that Foreign Office resources were never better spent. But all this is now in jeopardy, along with the surviving language services. It is hard to see what will remain but a shadow and skeleton of what the World Service used to be. And consider the timing, which could hardly be worse. Agents of disinformation are spreading their toxins through the world. Where the BBC withdraws and its wavelengths grow weaker, all sorts of national and international malefactors are ready to move in – not with news but with propaganda. Even today, under siege at home and abroad, the BBC remains the world's most trusted news organisation. Its American rival and former counterpart, the Voice of America, is being put to the sword by a White House whose megaphone is the partisan Fox News. It is challenged at home by a so-called news channel that offers a floodtide of rightwing opinions. The BBC's director general, Tim Davie, speaks of a 'borderline crisis in public service broadcasting' and he is better placed than anyone to know. Not only is the World Service at risk. So is the identity and survival of the national broadcaster – the model for so many others – as we have known and (dare I say?) loved it. I find it paradoxical, having risked my life for the BBC in so many war zones, that its World Service's funding is apparently at risk of being confiscated, among other sources, to pay for an increase in defence spending. Having served so effectively during the old cold war, it is now to be the casualty of a new one. I sense that we are living in the most dangerous times since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. You may argue that we need sharper swords and fewer ploughshares. I would reply that, more than ever, to make sensible decisions we need trustworthy sources of information. So do the people of Russia, China, Ukraine and India, among others. This is the point of the BBC: the truth is its currency. Wherever I travelled as a foreign correspondent, in times when communication was technically more difficult, I would find my colleagues from other countries crouched over their shortwave radios to find out what was going on around them and elsewhere. And what were they listening to? It was never Moscow. It was occasionally Radio Free Europe. It was usually the BBC. And would we willingly let this go? I hope and believe not. And I urge the government to think again. But I also believe this: once we have relinquished it, we shall never get it back. Martin Bell is a Unicef UK ambassador. He is a former broadcast war reporter, and was the independent MP for Tatton from 1997 to 2001
