January 10, 1996. Copyright, 1996, Graphic News. All rights reserved

HERE IS THE NEWS FROM LONDON: A 20% BUDGET CUT

By Nicholas Booth

LONDON, January 10, Graphic News Š It provides twenty-four hour news coverage in English and 37 other languages, has twice as many listeners as the Voice of America and provides a lifeline in truthful information Š as both Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev, along with countless others, have testified. But the BBC World Service, often cited as BritainÕs best cultural export, is under threat, like many international broadcast services, such as Radio Canada International. Faced with a cutback of 20 per cent to its annual budget of £178 million, a number of services are threatened.

The World Service is funded by direct grant from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and is based at Bush House, in LondonÕs Aldwych. Last November, Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, announced the budget cut and stated the gap could be plugged from private finance. To some extent, BBC Worldwide TV has shown the way, for it is self-financed from subscriptions and pre-sales. Co-productions, too, will become an important source of revenue, as evidenced by the start on January 1 of The World, a daily drive-time programme in the United States, funded by Minnesota-based Public Radio International, to which the World Service provides stories and presenters.

Sources: The Economist, BBC World Service