Earmarked for Hindi and Arabic, it appears. Thanks to Mike Barraclough for the heads-up!
RC ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mike Barraclough <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 8:02 AM Subject: Re: [Swprograms] Extra funding announced for World Service To: [email protected] Full text of William Hague's statement: http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/press-statement/2011/June/fs-wms-bbc-world-service220611 BBC Trust statement: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/june/world_service.shtml Mike ----- Original Message ---- From: Mike Barraclough <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wed, 22 June, 2011 12:42:14 Subject: Extra funding announced for World Service BBC News: BBC World Service is to receive an extra £2.2m per year over the next three years from the government. The funding boost will be used to maintain BBC Arabic Service's "valuable work in the region", Foreign Secretary William Hague said. The BBC will also reallocate an additional £9m to safeguard the Hindi language short wave service. It comes after the government cut 16% of the World Service's £270m budget as part of last year's spending review. In a written statement to MPs, Mr Hague said: "It is right that we should look at ways in which we can assist the BBC Arabic Service to continue their valuable work in the region. "I have agreed that we will provide additional funding of £2.2m per annum to enable the World Service to maintain the current level of investment." Mr Hague said although the original 16% cut was "fair and proportionate", he had reconsidered the decision in response to recent events in the Middle East and North Africa. "We recognise that the world has changed since the settlement was announced in October last year," he said. Mr Hague added the Foreign Office was in discussion with the Arab Partnership Initiative to fund specific BBC Arabic Service or World Service projects which could create an additional investment of £1.65m over the next two years. Earlier this month, BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten told the Sunday Telegraph he would lobby the government over its funding of the World Sevice, which will end in 2014 and be taken over by the BBC. He said the Arabic, Hindi and Somali services are "core" to the broadcasting operation. However, the corporation announced in January it would close five of its 32 World Service language services as part of its plan to cut spending by 20% after last year's licence fee settlement. Radio programming in seven other languages including Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Turkish were also hit, while other services would be scaled back. The BBC Trust welcomed the government's announcement, adding the reallocation of £9m of BBC money over three years would "mitigate the impact of recent funding cuts". "Together, this additional funding will help provide support to some priority frontline services. "It will also allow a small amount of investment in new activities, in particular on new platforms and in emerging markets," it added. The Foreign Office website initially headlined the announcement "Massive U-turn on BBC World Service funding," but it was subsequently changed to "BBC World Service Funding Review." A spokeswoman said the headline did not reflect government views and disciplinary action was being taken. A screenshot of the original headline is in the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8591524/Foreign-Office-gaffe-as-massive-u-turn-on-BBC-funding-is-announced.html Their report quotes the Trust as saying that the extra £9 million over three years they have found has come from "lower-than-expected restructuring costs and pension contributions," Mike _______________________________________________ Swprograms mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above. _______________________________________________ Internetradio mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/internetradio To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.
