Already a subscriber? Log in
But the World Service is about to suffer savage cuts to its funding, losing 650 of its 2,400 jobs, or more than 25 per cent of its employees. Let them go, you might think. What difference will it make to the minority of Macedonian and Albanian listeners who’ve been tuning in day-by-day for up-to-the-minute news from around the world, not just the Balkan states? Will the Caribbean service be much missed in the backstreets of Port-au-Prince, where life is about the struggle to survive starvation and disease after the earthquake so that listening to the radio is a luxury beyond the reach of most people? Why should we worry about cuts to the World Service when our national health service is in such peril?
Yet these are all the wrong questions. What we should be reflecting on is whether we can afford to junk yet more centres of excellence (after the last bout of demolition in the 1980s). When the Empire Service was set up, the technology was ropey, the radio journalism stilted and self-consciously imperialist in tone. It took years for the production quality to improve and for the ideas behind the microphone to firm up into the impartial ideals to which the BBC aspires (if it does not always attain). It took years, too, for the BBC to establish itself as the voice of reason, of fair play, decency and doing the right thing. To jeopardise this reputation, built up gradually, not won overnight, is short-sighted, and when William Hague stepped up to the microphone to defend the cuts he sounded mealy-mouthed, as if he had not considered what the World Service represents, or what the cuts might mean.
The World Service gives the BBC its global prestige (not something BBC3 is going to do, or much of the output on BBC1). Its Learning English website is a brilliant resource for those struggling with English as an additional language. Its news reporting is superior to other broadcasting networks. Try tuning in to the news in Sri Lanka, when you are next there on holiday, or in Bangkok or Bodrum. It’s not just that the World Service has become so good at what it does. It’s also the ripple effect of that excellence, the ‘soft power’ it flexes. As a nation, we’ve been punching above our weight for decades and not because of our manufacturing output. Starve the World Service and you’ll be risking more than the loss of a few listeners in Tirana.
The threat of cuts, though, can also be a much-needed adrenaline charge. Radio 1, which I have suggested would not be missed if it were to be abolished, has come up with novel ways of asserting its right for survival. It now proclaims a ‘social action’ agenda, as ‘an integral part of the station’s ethos’. I tuned in on Sunday night to The Surgery, which this week came from a sixth-form college in Sheffield. The presenters Aled Haydn Jones and Gemma Cairney fielded questions from the teenage students to the experts — a doctor, a psychologist and a finance guru. It was all a bit too interactive for me, and the constant underwash of drum’n’bass was irritating for anyone over 30. But the questions were sharp and the answers rather useful, so that I expected to last five minutes but stayed the hour. Take this advice to a young woman crippled with shyness. ‘Just remember that anxiety only lasts for a short time, so don’t be shy and hang back …And when you’re stuck for words, start asking questions.’ Next week they will be talking frankly about death.
Trending
Because you read about bbc
Also by Kate Chisholm
Latest
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in