FO headline competition: Spot the difference

A bit of a U-turn on the Foreign Office website led to a quick re-write of its first headline (top) on the story about extra cash for BBC World Service.

Via @TimMontgomerie

BBC World Service to get extra funding from Foreign Office in response to Arab uprisings

The Foreign Office is to provide additional funding for the BBC World Service, Foreign Secretary William Hague said today in a written statement.

Hague said: "In line with the Government’s response to events in the Middle East and North Africa and following the debate on 19 May, the FCO will provide some additional funding for the BBC World Service beyond that provided for in the 2010 Spending Review."

He added: "We recognise that the world has changed since the settlement was announced in October last year - indeed since the World Service announced the subsequent changes to services, including some closures, on 26 January.

"In the debate on 19 May, a number of Members of Parliament highlighted the impact of the reduction in World Service funding on the BBC Arabic Service. 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. So 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 in the BBC Arabic Service. This will increase the World Service’s funding as a proportion of the FCO’s budget to just over 14.5%.

"In addition the FCO is discussing providing funding from the Arab Partnership Initiative for specific projects proposed by the BBC Arabic Service or World Service Trust. Discussions are continuing about a number of projects which are designed to support the development of the media and wider civic society in the Middle East and North Africa region which taken together may mean an additional investment of up to £1.65m over the next two years."

Hague said: "I have discussed this overall approach with the Chairman of the BBC Trust and we have agreed that we will continue to work together to ensure that the World Service retains its global influence and reach in a rapidly changing world."

• Pic: NUJ 'Save the World Service' demo outside Bush House (Jon Slattery)

'Report shows BBC World Service cuts must stop'

The NUJ today demanded an immediate halt to the cuts at the BBC World Service after a report by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said the broadcaster "is of such value to the nation that its income should be ring-fenced against spending cuts".

The Committee said the planned 16% budget cuts should be reversed and were a "false economy". In January the BBC said it would close five of its language services because of the Foreign Office funding cuts.

Committee chairman Richard Ottaway said: "The value of the World Service in promoting the UK across the globe, by providing a widely-respected and trusted news service, far outweighs its relatively small cost.

"The recent dramatic events in North Africa and the Middle East have shown the 'soft power' wielded through the World Service could bring even more benefits to the UK in the future than it has in the past."

Last October the government reduced the World Service's £237 million annual budget by 16% and announced the BBC would take over the cost of running it from the Foreign Office from 2014. The committee's report said "the decision was essentially financial" and "taken at very short notice, albeit with the full agreement of BBC top management".

The report suggests using part of the Department for International Development's budget to make up the shortfall.

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “The NUJ is pleased that the committee has agreed with broadcasting unions and others who gave evidence about the quality and range of World Service output which needs to be defended.

“The cuts programme proposed by BBC management has already done damage through service closures. The BBC must stop the cuts immediately, and also halt the selection procedures for compulsory redundancy right now.

“The damaging service closures already implemented must be reversed immediately to protect the World Service as a source of information for people across the world, described by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan as ‘perhaps Britain’s greatest gift to the world’.

“The committee report is acidly polite in pointing out that there is a ‘discrepancy between the relatively small amounts of money needed to avoid the most damaging cuts to the World Service and the scale of the Department for International Development Spending Review settlement’.

“The attempt to cut the BBC World Service has inspired a level of international protest which echoes everything that BBC journalists have said about their concern for the service they provide.

“We hope, and demand, that the Foreign Office and the government now listen to the Foreign Affairs Committee when its considered report so clearly agrees with all that opposition to cuts.

“Let’s not mince words. The report shows that the cutters have got it badly wrong in attacking the BBC World Service. This report is an opportunity to reverse that disastrous policy.”

Pic: Jon Slattery

Tusa to speak at 'Save the World Service' meeting

Former director of the BBC World Service John Tusa is among speakers tomorrow night (Tuesday March 15) at a public meeting, organised by the National Union of Journalists, in the House of Commons to defend the World Service against government cuts.

The union says: "The BBC World Service is a story of continuing success: ten years ago it had 153 million regular radio listeners and today, the figure is 180 million - representing one in every 25 adults in the world.

"Journalists are rightly proud of their part in creating that success, but the proposed cuts will damage the BBC World Service as well as cut Britain’s influence in the rest of the world."

The NUJ says the cuts will mean:

• Thirty million short-wave listeners will no longer be able to hear the BBC World Service
  
• Another twenty million listeners could lose their signal if other changes being considered for English and twelve remaining shortwave services go ahead
  
• Job cuts will result in a noticeable drop in quality especially in the core area of World Service News, in the Language Services and in BBC Monitoring
  
• The Europe Today programme, whose expertise is used throughout the BBC, is to disappear in the cuts. The Politics UK programme is also going.
  
• Plans also include shutting down the medium wave World Service in English to Europe, and more than a dozen other services including Caribbean, Russian, Chinese, Azeri and Vietnamese, together with short-wave services in Indonesian, Kyrgyz, Nepali, and Swahili. These services are scheduled to close next week.
  

Other closures have already taken place - BBC Portuguese service to Africa, the Spanish Latin American service (BBC Mundo), and the services to Serbia, Albania and Macedonia.

The ‘Save the BBC World Service’ meeting will be held at the House of Commons, committee room 14, starting at 6.30pm.

Pic: Jon Slattery