BBC boss says Russia, China taking 'advantage' of World Service cuts

BBC boss says Russia, China taking 'advantage' of World Service cuts
by AFP Staff Writers
London (AFP) Oct 14, 2024
The head of the BBC warned Monday that Russia and China were exploiting funding cuts that have forced Britain's public broadcaster to scale back its much-lauded World Service network.

Tim Davie said in a speech that financial constraints affecting the BBC World Service were allowing Moscow, Beijing and other actors to "fill the gaps", including with "unchallenged propaganda".

"We can now see clear evidence of the fact that when the World Service retreats, state-funded media operators move in to take advantage," the director-general said.

The BBC World Service delivers output in 42 languages, and reaches around 320 million people worldwide every week.

For years it was funded through grants by the British government's foreign ministry. But since 2014, it has been predominantly funded by the television licence fee paid by British households.

In 2022 the BBC announced the closure of its Arabic and Persian radio services and hundreds of job cuts, and has increasingly moved language services to digital platforms.

Davie said that while the World Service's budget was nearly GBP 400 million ($522 million), Russia and China were spending an estimated GBP 6 billion to GBP 8 billion on "expanding their global media activities" in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

"Russia and China are outspending our investment by a multiple of thousands," he told the Future Resilience Forum, a non-partisan meeting attended by international political figures.

"Across Africa in particular, Russian media is incredibly active in promoting its narratives -- with social media influencers amplifying propaganda and so-called 'activists' live-streaming pro-Russia rallies.

"And this investment is seeing significant returns -- not only in terms of the reach of Russian state broadcaster RT and China's CGTN, but also in terms of trust."

The World Service has agreed not to close any language services under its current support package, but that condition is due to be lifted next year.

In April this year, a UK parliamentary inquiry was launched into the future funding of the service.

It was due to inspect its role as a soft power and look to establish whether increased government support was needed.

Davie said that in the decade to 2020, the BBC's income overall fell by about 30 percent in real terms, forcing job cuts, savings and putting the World Service under "intolerable pressures".

"Free and fair reporting has never been more essential" for democracies and "the further retreat of the BBC World Service should be a cause for serious global concern," he added.