January 12, 2006


World Service cuts slammed by MPs

by James Clegg

BBC workers have sent a strong message to their bosses and the government – keep your hands off the World Service.

Media unions Bectu and the NUJ jointly lobbied Parliament this week to protest against cuts which will see the BBC axe 236 jobs and close 10 of 43 language services.

Members of the two unions met their MPs to encourage them to sign Early Day Motion 864 which urges the Government to 'review the decision to close the services and to provide adequate resources to maintain current services.'

Since being proposed in October, the EDM has been signed by 112 MPs.

The decision to close the 10 Eastern European and Asian services is partly due to continuing cost-cutting at the BBC. However, most of the money will be used to fund a new Arabic television service.

Many attribute the decision to interference from the Foreign Office which funds the World Service, despite the claim by World Service Director Nigel Chapman, in an interview with The Guardian last October, that: 'It would not be appropriate for the Foreign Office to start making comment around editorial issues. This does not happen, it has not happened and it will not happen.'

In a pre-lobby discussion NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear said: 'The argument is that these new flourishing democracies no longer have a need for open, BBC style journalism – journalists in places like Kazakhstan and Thailand will be amazed to hear this. 'We welcome the development of a new Arabic TV service but not at the cost of robbing other services to pay for it.' Mr Dear also questioned how effective plans for the new station will prove given that a similar venture by the BBC a few years ago failed with many of the Arab journalists moving from the defunct BBC station to form al-Jazeera.

He suggested that the new service could be equally flawed, arguing that the Corporation was giving it the same budget for 12 hours of news as Channel 4 spends on a single hour.

Other speakers at the meeting included MP Jeremy Corbyn and former MP and veteran campaigner Tony Benn who described the cuts as 'savagery and insanity'.

Mr Benn also cited and paid tribute to his friend Tony Banks, pointing to the fact that the recently deceased Labour politician had been committed to maintaining standards in broadcasting since his tenure as assistant general secretary of the Association of Broadcasting and Allied Staffs.

Both the NUJ and BECTU are planning further action concerning the threat to the World Service.

© 2005 James Clegg; all rights reserved.