[Swprograms] Fwd: [uk-radio-listeners] UK press divided over BBC World Service plan

[Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

I thought swprograms members might like to see this observation as well.

I am glad to see the Guardian blame the FCO, not the BBCWS, but part
of me wonders how hard the BBCWS fought the FCO's budgetary pushback.

Thanks to Andy Sennitt for this as well...looks like the original post
was from him.

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mike Barraclough <mikewb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Oct 26, 2005 6:54 AM
Subject: [uk-radio-listeners] UK press divided over BBC World Service plan
To: uk-radio-listeners@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


 Yesterday's announcement by the BBC World Service of plans to close 10
 language services in order to finance a new Arabic TV network has
 caught the attention of the leader writers in two British newspapers.
 But they take a very different stance on the subject. The Times, owned
 by Rupert Murdoch's News International, supports the plan. The paper
 says that "Communism has collapsed, Eastern Europe is free and Poles,
 Czechs and Hungarians no longer need the scratchy, whistling
 short-wave lifeline to freedom." It concludes that "the BBC's decision
 to switch off ten foreign language radio services and use the £20
 million to launch — again — an Arabic television channel is right."

 The left-of-centre Guardian takes quite a different stance. It says
 that "the independent media in that region [Eastern Europe] are not so
 sturdy as optimists suggest, and the future of public broadcasting in
 particular, according to a recent report, is far from rosy." The
 Guardian says the blame lies with the government: "The Treasury and
 Foreign Office penny pinching that has clipped the World Service's
 wings so often in the past is again at fault. The World Service should
 not have been forced to make this choice."

 Times editorial
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,542-1843105,00.html
 Guardian editorial
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1600475,00.html
 (Media Network weblog)

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