By IRNA,
London : BBC World Service is of such value to Britain that its income should be ring-fenced against spending cuts, the Foreign Affairs Committee warned Wednesday.
In its report on the future of the BBC World Service, the all-party committee of MPs also said that the government’s decision to transfer funding for the service from the Foreign Office to the BBC will have “major long-term ramifications.”
“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,” said committee chair Richard Ottaway.
“The recent dramatic events in North Africa and the Middle East have shown that 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, and that to proceed with the planned cuts to the World Service would be a false economy”, Ottaway warned.
The report argues for the decision to reduce World Service spending by 16% in last year’s government spending review period should be reversed, and for resources made available for it to continue its operations at roughly the 2010–11 level of staffing and output.
The MPs also suggested that if the government rejects its appeal, a damage limitations exercise is launched not to reduce Hindi and China Mandarin shortwave services, and to provide “enhanced resources to BBC Arabic as required by the recent and continuing political developments in the region.”
Ottaway further said that the committee does not believe the decision to transfer funding responsibility from the Foreign Office (FCO) to the BBC will make the World Service’s funding more secure.
“Despite all assurances, this decision could lead to long-term pressure on the World Service budget, with the risk of a gradual diversion of resources to fund other BBC activities,” he said.
“No transfer of funding responsibility for the World Service from the direct FCO Grant-in-Aid to the BBC should take place until satisfactory safeguards have been put in place to prevent any risk of long-term erosion of the World Service’s funding and of Parliament’s right to oversee its work,” he added.