Memorandum submitted by Mr R G Rose
"BRINGING BENEFIT TO BRITAIN"
1. I respectfully request you to kindly
bring the following communication, together with its internet
links, to the attention of the Rt Hon Donald Anderson, MP, the
Chairman the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. I would
also appreciate this communication, if custom and protocol allow—and
subject to the prerogative of Mr Anderson—being delivered
to the other Members of the Committee.
I wish to communicate with the Chairman of the
House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee by e-mail, in the first
instance, because there are a considerable number of items on
the internet which can be downloaded and which add support to
the case which I wish to make. It is my intention to forward to
you at the earliest convenient time, via the Royal Mail, a printed
copy of this e-mail, together with supplementary documents, which
were not or are no longer available on the internet.
2. I am very concerned about the trends
at the BBC World Service over recent years. One consideration
is the paucity of specifically British news and information, as
well as the increasingly inadequate and caricatured image of this
country, which is being portrayed abroad, by the Corporation's
World Service. As you are well aware, funding for this BBC service
comes from a grant-in-aid bestowed upon the BBC by the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office; this means that the monies accrue from
general taxation, which all of us, who pay tax directly or indirectly,
contribute to. It should be noted, as you are well aware, that
proposed funding for the BBC World Service is to increase appreciably
by some £48 million by 2005-06, according to the latest figures[17],
and clearly the BBC is keen to demand more[18].
3. Generally, British people who are informed
about the existence of the traditional BBC World Service are justly
and justifiably proud of it. Since its inception in 1932 as the
Empire Service, the BBC's external radio transmissions, in English
and other languages, have done much to provide listeners abroad
with fair and impartial news and information about this country,
as well as information and comments about important happenings
across the rest of the world.
4. I believe that it is no exaggeration
to maintain that the entire BBC did much to win two wars by increasing
morale at home and abroad with its defiant tone on both its domestic
and its external radio programmes. I refer, of course, to World
War II and the so-called "Cold War". In his seminal
book, "Five Days in London, May 1940", John Lukacs states
on page 207, "London was now the capital of freedom, the
fountain of hope for millions of Europeans who listened night
after night to the broadcasts of the British Broadcasting Corporation".
When I was a small boy, here in Cheshire, during
the early war years of the 1940s, I recall it was my mother's
wont to listen to the BBC programmes of "London Calling Europe"
so that she could be informed, during the day, of wartime happenings.
"London Calling Europe", with its determined and inspiring
Morse code, dot-dot-dot-dash "V for Victory" drumbeat,
followed by the stiring tones of a portion of Jeremiah Clark's
"Trumpet Voluntary", was my first awareness that the
BBC broadcast beyond our shores.
5. In my adolescent years I came to realise
the extensiveness of short wave radio broadcasting and thus, when
I moved to Montreal, Canada, to take up employment in the late
1960s, it was natural for me to tune in to transmissions from
the BBC on short wave radio. For 33 of my more than 34 years in
Canada I found programmes from the BBC World Service invaluable
in not only keeping me abreast of happenings in this—my
own country—but providing me with important news and comments
about critical events in the rest of the world. You are already
aware, I am sure, that the BBC's General Overseas Service, or
World Service, as it became, had balanced programming, which included
the full range of music as well as other cultural, entertainment
and comedy features of various kinds. In essence the service comprised
a varied selection of the best types of NBC domestic radio programmes
of the time, adapted, and in most cases specifically created for
an overseas audience.
6. During my earlier years in Canada the
BBC greatly extended its broadcast coverage by increasing the
service to a full 24 hours of continuous programming at Bush House,
which was beamed to different parts of the world at convenient
listening times. As far as I was concerned, this meant that the
BBC was heard for longer periods in North America, during each
24 hour broadcast day, as it became available during the mornings
and late afternoons in addition to its traditional evening broadcasts.
7. The BBC also improved considerably the
reliability of its signals. This was effected by greatly increasing
the signal strength of its short wave transmitters, located in
northern, central and southern England, as well as by employing
powerful short wave relay facilities at strategic parts of the
world. As far as the western hemisphere was concerned the first
of these relays was on Ascension Island in the south Atlantic,
then at the CBC's short wave station in Sackville, New Brunswick,
Canada and subsequently in a joint venture with the German international
broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, on the island of Antigua, in the
Caribbean. The BBC also initiated a new reciprocal relay agreement
with the Voice of America in Washington, DC, which ensured that
the VOA would relay the World Service to the Western Hemisphere
from its own US transmitter sites. Transmitters in Florida, USA,
owned and operated by WYFR Family Radio were also hired for relay
purposes. In more recent times the method of providing relay stations
with BBC programmes was improved appreciably when they became
connected directly with the studios in London via audio satellite
feeds.
8. The caring approach which the BBC took
to its extensive overseas audience, as well as to the content
and style, together with the presentation, of its programmes began
to change fundamentally a few years ago. The nurtured balance,
which had been developed very successfully by a dedicated professional
staff of broadcasters, initiated and led by that pioneer and paragon
of public and international broadcasting, John Reith[19],
continued in later years under the successive and successful directorships
of such stalwarts as Gerard Mansell, Douglas Muggeridge, Austen
Kark[20]
and John Tusa. Yet all these firm foundations were systematically
removed as fundamental changes were progressively introduced over
the past decade.
9. These changes were most notable when
the BBC began to reduce appreciably the balanced programmes which
dealt with aspects of life and happenings in the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Such British-focused features
as, "Network UK", "From the Weeklies", "Review
of the British Press", "The Week in Review", "New
Ideas", "Desert Island Discs", a monthly service
from St. Martin-in-the-Fields (led until 1984 by the incomparable
and inspirational Rev. Austen Williams, who died last year, and
even "News about Britain" have all been scrapped in
recent years to be replaced by special interest programmes, regional
programmes and other features which tend to portray both this
country, and the western world in general, in a poor light. This
is particularly true in regional broadcasts to the Caribbean region
and to Africa. This lack of comprehensive British news, as well
as news from the countries of which the United Kingdom is comprised,
could well have been a major reason for Wales Radio International
having commenced operations[21].
10. Such British news as is now broadcast
by the World Service tends to portray this country as being replete
with institutional racists, football hooligans, diseased farm
animals, brazen adolescent criminals, bellicose asylum seekers,
sleazy politicians, perpetual murder and mayhem in Ulster and,
by way of light relief, rustic nettle-eating competitors, to name
but a few. Essentially it is a matter of reporting only the more
deplorable aspects of British life and happenings. The phrase
"and a full round-up of the British news" belies what
one will hear, for it will not be a complete reporting of the
main daily events in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. News
about the rest of the British Isles is virtually non-existent.
The only reporting in relatively recent times about the Isle of
Man and the Channel Islands has been that their offshore financial
service industries may be jeopardised, to placate banking interests
in Europe, and a one thousand year link between the Crown and
the Channel Islands could be ruptured. Essentially the problem
with the so-called British news, as currently broadcast on the
World Service, is one of a lack of balance.
11. The former regular 30 minute news bulletin,
"Newsdesk", broadcast in different editions, throughout
the broadcast day, has been dropped in favour of snippets of six
minutes of headline news, which is sometimes followed by what
could be called at best "newschat". "Newsdesk"
was the World Service a equivalent of the quintessential news
bulletins, at 6pm and midnight, on BBC Radio 4. Of course, the
latter continue to be broadcast on Radio 4 on weekdays, with 15
minute editions at the weekend.
Moreover, the BBC seems to have become so keen
on employing people, on its English language services, who were
not born, or more relevantly raised in this or any other English-speaking
country, and thus whose accents are so marked as to make much
of what they say incompressible to me, a native English-speaker,
who has been familiar for many years with a whole range of accents
on a daily basis. I am aware that both Canadians and Americans
find distinct regional accents from most parts of the British
Isles, as they sound in films and in televisions programmes, difficult
if not impossible to follow and, therefore, to understand. It
is not unusual for both US and Canadian TV news programmes to
add subtitles, at the bottom of the TV screen, when people from
Africa or Asia are being interviewed in English. Why the BBC,
once world-renowned for the clarity of its "received pronunciation",
should wish to embark on such a policy of linguistic obfuscation
escapes me.
12. I recall that the noted military historian
and defence correspondent, Sir John Keegan, wrote, in the "Daily
Telegraph" on February 20 2002, ". . . modulated voices,
speaking the sort of BBC English that Greg Dyke is trying to eliminate
from his empire." It would appear that many of these modulated
voices have already been eliminated from the BBC World Service
and the result is a lack of clarity. Indeed, it can be maintained
that the clarity of received pronunciation—"modulated
voices"—is of far greater importance in terms of external
broadcasting than it is for domestic audiences. The vagaries of
short wave signals and other delivery methods mandate clarity
on the part of the speaker.
13. The present regular, almost hourly,
introduction sequence which purports to have the BBC World Service
emanating from a varied list of foreign locations, uttered in
a series of rapidly delivered parrot-like squawks, produces a
parody of the satirical style of the late Peter Sellers. Amusing
it is, although I am sure it is not intended as such. The slogan,
"a world of personalities 24 hours a day", which often
completes this introduction to BBC World Service programmes on
the hour, is both garish and incongruous. Another jingle, "a
world of ideas and imagination 24 hours a day", which often
precedes a news bulletin, would be more appropriate as an inducement
for children to indulge in a media production designed for young
people. Or is this vacuous slogan meant as a precursor which heralds
spin rather than substance? All of us have a right to expect better
from a premier world broadcaster which used to be able to command
global respect and unfettered attention when it introduced its
programmes following such announcements as, "This is London
calling in the World Service of the BBC" or simply, "This
is London".
14. For virtually all of the time the BBC
has transmitted programmes across the globe the Westminster chimes,
and particularly Big Ben, have been the hallmark of Greenwich
Mean Time. They have also been the reassuring tones and audible
symbol of the both London and the BBC and ipso facto evocative
of the nation as a whole. This is no longer the case. People in
the immediate environs of the Palace of Westminster may be privileged
to hear these distinctive chimes; so may listeners throughout
Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel
Islands, who can hear them at 6pm and 12 midnight prior to the
news on BBC Radio 4. Nowadays the only listeners abroad who can
reliably hear them, as part of English language broadcasts, are
those in Europe who happen to tune in to the BBC Radio 4 long
wave frequency of 198 kHz at the aforementioned times. Paradoxically,
the Latin American Service of the BBC continues its long tradition
of opening its Spanish language broadcasts with the Westminster
Chimes and the first strike of the hour by Big Ben.
15. However, as if to compensate for the
loss of Big Ben and to demonstrate to its global audience the
significance of time, World Service listeners are now subjected,
on the hour, to several local times being quoted before the precise
announcement of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)—World Time, Universal
Time (UT), or Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC) as it is sometimes
called. This merely adds confusion. A global audience requires
one standard time as a universal reference. Greenwich Mean Time—GMT—is
that universal reference and nothing should complement it or obscure
it.
16. All these changes are far more than
mere modifications to, or even a modernisation of a well-respected
and long-established service. They are not examples of fine tuning
to suit changing times and circumstances, but a fundamental change
in both ethos and philosophy. These metamorphoses represent a
loss of corporate identity which are more profound and of greater
significance than the initial removal of the Union Flag from the
tail fins of British Airways planes and the changing of the name
of the GPO—the Post Office, or Royal Mail—to Consignia.
The folly of these latter deviations has recently been rectified.
Only the BBC World Service, it seems, can continue to be outlandish.
(There are, coincidentally, the incongruous "channel idents"
on BBC ONE, so maybe obscurantism is now becoming a contemporary
Corporation trait?) http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/news/news398.shtml
17. However, programming and pronunciation
aside, the most devastating and grievous happening to the BBC
World Service occurred in the middle of last year, on July 1 2001.
This was the date when the BBC terminated direct high frequency—short
wave—transmissions to virtually the entire English-speaking
world beyond our shores.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,505584,00.html
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=80427
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/05/26/nbbc26.xml
It seems a very strange way for the BBC to commemorate
the centenary of the transmission of the first transatlantic wireless
signals by one of its founders, Guglielmo Marconi, by cancelling
short wave radio broadcasts to Canada, the USA, Australia, New
Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
18. What makes the BBC`s actions questionable,
if not downright suspect, is the reality of there being currently
a resurgence in short wave radio listening in the developed world.
Indeed, this increase in short wave radio listening can be said
to mirror the renaissance of radio listening in general, for in
our own country more people are now listening to radio programmes
than are watching television. In recognition of this trend it
is common to have frequent advertisements for portable short wave
radio receivers in the leisure or weekend sections of quality
British newspapers. In Canadian newspapers, however, advertisements
for short wave radios appear in the main world news pages. Moreover,
the advent of DRM—Digital Radio Mondiale—is about
to make the most profound change to high frequency radio broadcasting
and listening across the world. The British international telecommunications
company, Merlin Communications, is carrying out trial transmissions
in DRM using the Celtic Notes programmes of Wales Radio International.
19. The overall increase in short wave radio
listening has already been noted by Merlin Communications: http://www.merlincommunications.com/site3/press40.htm
Merlin has produced a much larger survey than
this. Since this particular report does not appear to be available
any longer on that company's website I will forward a printed
copy together with the printed version of this e-mail.
20. As part of its current website advertising
campaign, "Passport to World Band Radio 2003"[22]
quotes Bill Husted. Mr Husted writes a technology column for "The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution". Mr Husted records elsewhere
that he uses his computer a great deal, spends a lot of time on
the internet and is an amateur radio operator. Mr Husted reports
as follows, in contemporary American vernacular, "When I
was a kid, shortwave radios looked like horror movie props—complicated
machines that should have been hooked up to Frankenstein.
"There were great rows of mysteriously
labelled dials, meters and switches. And you needed every one
of them just to tune in the BBC.
"Almost everything has changed since then.
I'm no longer a genius. The radios are tiny and easy to use. But
one thing stayed the same. Messing with shortwave is still as
close to magic as you can get without a bag full of salamanders.
"So what's the big deal about shortwave?
After all, I zip around the globe on the Internet's World Wide
Web. I've watched live video from a war zone, literally heard
and seen the bombs bursting in air.
"The big deal, to me, is the ability to
eavesdrop on the news. Instead of getting 10 seconds of hand-picked
video and sound, you'll listen as the event unfolds.
"I can't promise owning a shortwave will
be a life-changing experience for you. But I'm pretty sure you'll
find something fine on your trip around the shortwave bands. .
. "
21. Notwithstanding the repeated evidence
to the contrary, the BBC claims that in developed western countries
few people listen to short wave radio except for "short wave
enthusiasts", whom it seems to disparage and probably despises.
Having taken this approach it is not surprising that the BBC fails
to note, to report, or to take seriously that in the USA alone
one million radio sets, with short wave bands, are being sold
each year.
http://www.epolitix.com/bos/epxnews/aa651de76949d149a1edb09947464bd80000004e1351.htm
22. In reality there is a discerning and
increasing number of people in the USA, and elsewhere in the developed
western world, who are listening to short wave radio broadcasts.
If one discounts the numerous short wave transmissions
broadcast within the Western Hemisphere, for other countries or
regions within that hemisphere, there are over 35 international
short wave radio stations in Europe, Asia and Africa which broadcast
one or more programmes in English daily to the USA and Canada.
Most of these stations also broadcast in English to Australia,
New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Moreover, there are additional
radio stations which do not broadcasts to the Western Hemisphere
but which do broadcast to Australasia. Daniel Sampson of Arcadia,
Wisconsin, USA has created and maintains a detailed list of major
international short wave broadcasts in English by time—GMT:
http://www.triwest.net/-dsampson/shortwave/time.html and by country
of origin: http://www.triwest.net/-dsampson/shortwave/country.html
23. One of the ways that the BBC is about
to celebrate the 70th anniversary of external broadcasting is
with a desultory shindig:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/features/topten/
http://media.guardian.co.uk/bbc/story/0,7521,835772,00.html.
This seems to be a case of form in place of
function and rhyme rather than reason. Other celebrations of this
event are particularly grandiose. By featuring high profile celebrities
and personalities, rather than genuine listeners, and by emphasizing
prestigious locations at the expense of relevant historical events,
one must conclude that this particular venture is an extravaganza
rather than a commemoration:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,12636,849017,00.html
24. The BBC began this external radio service
seven decades ago by linking outposts of the British Empire and
the World Service's director maintains that "a strong future
for the World Service...matters deeply above all to our 153 million
listeners. . . "
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/annual—review/2000/directors—view.shtml
One can only wonder about the future for those
World Service listeners who have lost their short wave connections
to the BBC and to whom the service also mattered deeply. It cannot
be stressed too strongly that, as far as the BBC is concerned,
these former listeners are no longer of any importance whatsoever.
No amount of pious nostrums, nor vacuous platitudes, which are
evoked by officials of the Corporation, can alter this reality.
25. One reason given by the BBC for such
a drastic measure is the supposed large number of people in North
America and Australasia who can and do access the World Service
on the internet. This is mendacious. Technology at the present
time does not permit large numbers of people to access any one
"radio" internet site at one specific time. I was never
able to access the BBC World Service on the internet in Canada.
The best that I could access on the web from the BBC was Radio
5 Live and that was very infrequently. Indeed, while listening
to 5 Live, there were frequent interruptions due to "net
congestion". The whole exercise was one of frustration and
futility and thus one I was not willing to continue to engage
in even on a trial basis. To compound the problem one discovers
that the world wide web is not as free and as open as it was at
first deemed to be:
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story—ID=729808
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?Story—ID=730089
A further weakness of the internet is the manner
that both China and Vietnam have been able to block the BBC's
website:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,838547,00.html
26. The BBC is now promoting the concept
of foreign radio stations relaying World Service programmes from
Bush House as though this were some recent innovation. This practise
has been in operation at least since the onset of World War II
and in some cases before that. The BBC makes the specious claim
that in its newly-created short wave-deprived areas of the world
there are now ample local FM stations which serve World Service
listeners well. Lamentably this is not the case. Where local FM
stations do exist they usually relay only a news bulletin from
London. Moreover, many such FM stations broadcast BBC news features
at unsociable times. For example "World Update" is broadcast
on NPR—the American National Public Radio network—at
5 am Eastern Time. Should it be heard further west in the USA
it will be 4 am Central, 3 am Mountain and 2 am Pacific time respectively.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/world—update.shtml
27. The much vaunted concept of having an
FM transmitter relaying the World Service in each capital city,
was toppled recently in the Raleigh, the capital city of North
Carolina. Radio Station WCPE in Raleigh was the first FM station
in the USA to relay BBC World Service news bulletins. As the following
announcements illustrate, the BBC can be as summary in its execution
of a loyal FM station and its listeners, as it has been in its
abandoning its devoted short wave listeners:
http://wcpe.org/bbc.shtml and http://wcpe.org/bbc2.shtml
28. There is always a danger in relying
exclusively upon local radio stations to relay BBC programmes.
There are close and long-standing British and Canadian relationships
in broadcasting; the most recent of which was a visit in October
2002 by Her Majesty to the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto to
celebrate the Golden Jubilee of CBC television broadcasts:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/10/10/queencbc021010
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation—the
CBC—was modelled on the BBC, as developed by the redoubtable
Lord Reith. From before the time that Canada was Great Britain's
strongest ally in combat for more than a year in 1940-41, and
for almost 40 years thereafter, the CBC relayed BBC news bulletins
on its domestic radio network. On November 1 1976 these BBC bulletins
ceased to be broadcast on CBC radio.
29. This matter of the termination of the
BBC news in Canada provoked negative reaction across the Dominion
and prompted an MP from Vancouver to introduce into the Canadian
House of Commons a request for the reinstatement of these bulletins.
To be successful, of course, it needed the unanimous approval
of all the members. It failed to get this unanimity due to the
opposition of a few MPs, from the province of Quebec, who probably
never tuned in to these news bulletins, but who did not wish anybody
else to continue to do so.
30. I was able to inform readers, of the
Letters to the Editor columns, of the now defunct English language
daily newspaper, "The Montreal Star", in its November
20 1976 edition, that BBC news bulletins were relayed by local
radio stations in more than 50 countries and that the CBC's own
short wave station had recently begun re-broadcasting ten and
a half hours each day of BBC World Service programmes to the Western
Hemisphere:
http://www.rcinet.ca/Scripts/default.asp?s1=RCI&s2=SACKVILLE&l=en
31. On the same topic I received a letter
from the Supervisor of Public Relations at the CBC's national
headquarters in Ottawa, dated November 12 1976, which stated the
following ". . . we feel that as Canadian broadcasters we
should be providing world news from a Canadian perspective . .
. Excellent as the BBC news is, it is essentially a foreign newscast
and we no longer feel justified in carrying it. . . the BBC overseas
news is. . . intended for the shortwave audience. . . The program
is still available as a direct BBC transmission to those Canadians
who are particularly interested." Surely these Canadian sentiments
of national versus foreign will surface again elsewhere and the
BBC will be shut out once more, sooner or later.
32. On the other hand the CBC's short wave
relays of the BBC World Service programmes to the Western Hemisphere
from its transmitter site in Sackville, NB continued from 1976
until July 1 2001. The BBC was the first international broadcaster,
apart from United Nations Radio in the immediate post war period,
and of course the CBC itself, to utilize the Sackville short wave
station. At the present time seven foreign broadcasters are using
Sackville for relay purposes. The BBC—the pioneer of this
venture—is now conspicuous by its absence from their ranks.
33. One of the consequences of the BBC's
relinquishing its World Service relay facilities in Canada has
been the adoption by other international broadcasters of this
short wave relay facility. First off the mark was the Dutch broadcaster
Radio Nederland, in Hilversum, which was able to extend its existing
evening coverage to eastern and western North America to include
morning programmes at the local time, via Sackville's former BBC
relay frequency of 5965 kHz and, for the west coast, 15220 kHz:
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/06/30/wbbc30.xml
In addition, Radio Nederland is now able to
use spare capacity at Sackville to broadcast in Dutch :
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/html/schedule.html
Subsequently Radio Voice of Vietnam, which was
already using Sackville, began to employ the former Canadian BBC
relay frequency of 6175 kHz for transmissions in the evenings
to North, Central and South America in English, Spanish and Vietnamese:
http://www.vov.org.vn/docs1/english/programme/index1.html
34. The operator which handles these telecommunication
matters is the British company, Merlin Communications: http://www.merlincommunications.com/
or VT Merlin Communications International, as we should now refer
to it, as it now forms part of the Vosper Thornycroft Group:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,593483,00.html
The company's website also lists its partners:
http://www.merlincommunications.com/site3/links.htm
35. The BBC's precipitous action in terminating
its short wave radio broadcasts to some one and a half million
regular listeners brought immense condemnation from many quarters
in this country and abroad. For several weeks letters addressed
to, and broadcast on, the World Service programme, "Write
On", were universal in their condemnation. After a couple
editions of the programme in this vein, the announcement was made
that discussion on this topic would cease to be aired. However,
possibly the best single letter of constructive condemnation of
the BBC's action is that written, as an open letter to the BBC
World Service, by Ralph Brandi, of Tinton Falls, New Jersey, USA:
http://www.brandi.org/ralph/bbc—open—letter.html
36. The BBC also maintains that it is saving
a considerable sum of money by terminating its short wave broadcasts
to almost the entire English-speaking world. If money is the BBC's
prime consideration, it should be noted that there is not one
English language BBC World Service, but seven, as well as a further
all-news channel which is available, to those who can receive
it, on the internet. The BBC introduced a scheme a few years ago
whereby each continental region was to have its own specific BBC
World Service "stream":
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/worldservice/psims/ScheduleSDT.cgi.
37. Often these "streams" have
programmes which are only one hour apart. In addition there are
several entirely different regional "opt-out" programme
sequences, during parts of the broadcast day, for the Caribbean,
Europe, East Asia and Africa. Clearly all these extra programme
duplications and multiplications must be expensive. One can only
ponder whether this can be deemed prudent or economical in financial
terms.
38. One of the supposed reasons for introducing
these "streams" was to make programmes more convenient
for listeners in various parts of the world. When I resided in
Canada I was able to listen to the BBC during the early morning,
the late afternoon and in the evening until midnight and beyond.
I can state unequivocally that the creation of the Americas "stream"
resulted in programmes being less convenient for me than they
had been when there was only one World Service programme for the
entire planet. To compound the problem there were comprehensive
time and day changes to regular programmes in October and March
to coincide with time changes in several countries. These drastic
changes were supposed to be unnecessary in the "Age of Stream".
In case my claim is dispensed with as being merely subjective,
it should be noted that I lived in the eastern time zone of North
America; this has the largest concentration of people of any of
the time zones of the USA and Canada. Moreover, it is the time
zone which Canadian and American radio and television broadcasters
cater to most of all. Unquestionably the BBC World Service should
have done likewise.
39. Another obvious excessive consumption
of precious financial resources relates to these seven "streams"
emanating from Bush House, in the Strand, 24 hours a day. The
numbers of people across the globe who may be listening to the
BBC World Service in the middle of their respective nights can
hardly make such a venture cost-effective. As if that were not
enough of a dubious use of British taxpayers' money one must wonder
why, with the BBC no longer broadcasting to over one million listeners
in North America on short wave, there is still a specific head
of operations for the Americas? The same question can be put with
regard to there being a head of the Asia and Pacific region, since
the BBC no longer broadcasts specifically to Australia, New Zealand
and the Pacific Islands.
40. The BBC frequently quotes its royal
mandate. However, I submit that, as far as external radio broadcasting
is concerned, the BBC is in violation—in whole or in part—of
its Royal Charter in ten instances. The first one is the directive
noted in the penultimate paragraph of the introduction and the
additional perceived violations are those listed in objects (a),(c),(e),(g),(h),(i),(u),(x)
and (z). In addition to these particular cases it is possible
that other objectives of the Corporation's Royal Charter could
be being violated in this regard as well. In addition to the perceived
violation of its Charter, the BBC's policies also mean that, prima
facie, the Corporation is guilty of lése-majesté,
which has now been protracted into the final month of this momentous
year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee.
41. I reiterate that the reason that I have
chosen e-mail as the first means of communicating with you is
the ability I have at my disposal to provide internet sites which
clarify this matter in much more detail. Doubtless the best such
website is one which has been assembled by a coalition of short
wave clubs and federations in Canada, the USA, Australia and New
Zealand:
http://www.savebbc.org/coalition.html
The main site, which I am sure you are familiar
with, that provides considerable arguments, from many different
quarters, against the BBC's precipitous and ill-conceived action
of July 1 2001 is: http://www.savebbc.org. The BBC's own case
is also presented on this website as is an interview with two
of the protagonists:
http://www.savebbc.org/newshour-transcript.html
42. On June 22 2001 two Members of Parliament,
Austin Mitchell, and Michael Fabricant, introduced an Early Day
Motion in the House of Commons. This EDM number 26 requested the
BBC to reconsider its action in terminating World Service transmissions
on short wave to North America and Australasia. The EDM was given
65 additional open signatures by MP's across the political spectrum:
http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/EDMI—SES=01/ref=26
Nonetheless, some Honourable Members gave their
approval to the BBC's action in EDM number 39:
http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/EDMI—SES=01/ref=39
However, others, appreciating fully the damage
that was been caused, tabled the following amendment to EDM 39:
http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/EDMI—SES=01/ref=39A1
43. Other international radio stations have
been aghast at the BBC's decision to curtail much of its short
wave delivery. One friendly rival, the Dutch broadcaster, Radio
Nederland Wereldomroep, in Hilversum, has had frequent editorials
on the matter, which are listed below in chronological order:
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features/html/shortwave010509.html
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features—archive/html/010521.html
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features—archive/html/010618.html
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features—archive/html/010712.html
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features—archive/html/020211.html
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features—archive/html/020625.html
44. It is significant that during 2001,
and to a lesser extent in 2002, all the country's major broadsheets,
"The Times", "The Financial Times", "The
Independent", "The Guardian", "The Daily Telegraph",
as well as weeklies such as "The Spectator" and, for
overseas readership, "The Weekly Telegraph", carried
several articles which criticised the BBC's actions. There was
much correspondence to the press from informed readers at home
and abroad, including an article written by a former World Service
director, John Tusa:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=80426
A former BBC World Service Head of Audience
Research, Graham Mytton, commented as follows:
http://www.savebbc.org/graham—mytton—comments.html
For good measure a plaintive letter, from an
erstwhile World Service listener in Canada, was published in "Radio
Times".
45. Of particular note in this regard are
the comments about the BBC World Service which are found in the
2002 edition of the American annual, "Passport to World Band
Radio". On pages 38 and 39 the following comments are made,
"Gone are the days when the BBC World Service listeners thrilled
to serialised adaptions of books by Dick Francis and John le Carré
and others in "Thirty Minute Theatre". Today Sid Halley
and George Smiley have been replaced by "Westway" a
politically correct soap opera with as much snap as a dead alligator.
"Yes PC has come to the BBC World Service
along with other measures that are dumbing down the onetime pearl
of the airwaves. But even while programming is being made `lite',
management says it is targeting today's World Service to "elites".
Eviscerating substance to appeal to educated elites has it backwards,
so smart money is betting that there is another agenda, perhaps
to have the World Service evolve into a commercial broadcaster."
46. On pages 76 and 77 "Passport to
World Band Radio Edition 2002" has the following comments:
"That was the station that was. In recent years the BBC World
Service has managed not only to reduce audibility in the Western
Hemisphere and Australasia, but also to dumb down content with
many shows being produced on the cheap—independently rather
than in house—several long-running favorites have lost their
sparkle.
"It is not as though the money isn't there.
The BBC as a whole has managed to toss over a hundred million
pounds into internet schemes that haven't gone anywhere, while
broadcasting basics have fallen to pot. As Bush House insiders
put it, the highest levels of BBC management see themselves as
visionaries, rather than managers, emphasizing early adoption
of emerging technologies. This may be a formula for latter-day
Da Vinci status, but it has deprived the world of what has arguably
been the most effective civilising influence." "Passport
to World Band Radio Edition 2002", did have praise for two
long-established programmes, "World Business Report"
and "Play of the Week". Before the 2002 edition of "Passport.
. . " was printed, its publisher, Lawrence Magne, made the
following remarks in an interview on National Public Radio—NPR
in the USA. This is available on the following website:
http://www.savebbc.org/magnenpr.html
47. The 2003 edition of this publication
continues its appraisal of the contemporary BBC World Service.
On page 52 the following comments are printed, "Decisions
by World Service program planners are almost always incomprehensible
to listeners trying to keep track of favourite shows. For those
already confused by seven different program streams—and
seasonal adjustments for Daylight Saving Time in three streams—a
major program reshuffle for summer 2002 probably left them in
a complete daze. And this was less than a year after drastic transmission
cutbacks to the Americas and Australasia".
48. On page 81, the 2003 edition of "Passport
to World Band Radio" comments as follows, "BBC World
Service management leaves the impression that the listener is
the last person who matters. Indeed, its current director even
sniffs that the station is not interested in being heard by the
likes of Michigan automobile workers. A combination of lower-quality
productions and seven different program streams has strained audience
patience. Some effort is being made to repair the damage but this
doesn't originate at the top so major improvement is unlikely
anytime soon. Nevertheless, there remain a number of superb programmes.
. . " The publication lists on this page and elsewhere four
such programmes. It should be noted that prior to the last couple
of editions of the publication, "Passport. . . " was
fullsome in its praise of the World Service of the BBC. No adjective
was too superlative to be used in its comments on the BBC's external
broadcasting.
49. Many former loyal listeners to the BBC
World Service, as well as other interested parties, spent much
time during the summer of 2001 communicating with the printed
media, with parliamentarians, as well as with people at British
diplomatic missions abroad, with officials at the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office and with executives at the BBC itself. What
I found to have been particularly deplorable was the insouciant
manner that spokesmen and spokeswomen at both the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office and the BBC replied to their correspondence
on this topic. Never for one moment did anybody with responsibility
in this matter seem to have considered that an error—no
matter how possibly well-intentioned—had been made. A decision
had been made by BBC executives, which was supported unequivocally
by the FCO, and there was to be no genuine or effective reconsideration
or reappraisal.
50. Protests at home and abroad were brushed
aside with scant regard for either the sacrificed audience or
the overburdened taxpayer. The opprobrium which was directed towards
the entire British Broadcasting Corporation, as well as to our
country, as a result of this action and these attitudes was substantial
and continues to this day.
In marked contrast over recent years several
small international radio stations have had to reconsider their
futures in the light of their respective governments having cut
back their financing. Although there have been a few exceptions,
when it had been made clear that there was a viable devoted international
audience of people who listened to the threatened stations their
governments, or the radio stations in question, recanted and continued
to operate. Radio stations which fall into this category include
Radio Australia, Radio Canada International and Radio New Zealand
International.
51. The BBC World Service, however, has
faced no such funding restrictions. Like the number of personnel
on its management board—17—its funding has grown appreciably
in recent years thereby turning J K Galbraith's adage of "private
affluence and public squalor" into something akin to not
only "public avarice" but "public squander".
Indeed, I am inclined to view the contemporary BBC World Service
as a bloated quango—a behemoth of increasingly grotesque
proportions or, in the North American idiom, a major boondoggle.
The BBC World Service has, as its proud boast the claim that it
is ". . . bringing benefit to Britain": http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/annual—review/2000/index.shtml
52. My perceptions and my global awareness
may be limited but I know of no tangible, no discernable and no
visible benefits of note which the United Kingdom derives nowadays
from the operations of the contemporary BBC World Service. As
far as the BBC World Service's claim to be "benefiting Britain"
is concerned, my contention is that it is doing no such thing.
Not only is the BBC's attitude in this regard disingenuous, but
it also manifests a marked degree of callowness.
53. Notwithstanding the large sums of money
which the BBC seems able to garner from British taxpayers' coffers,
there are only two international broadcasting stations which transmit
on short wave to audiences both across the North Atlantic and
the South Pacific from "these islands", as the southern
Irish refer euphemistically to the British Isles. These stations
are the Irish national broadcaster, Radio Telefis Eireann—RT
Radio Worldwide: http://wwa.rte.ie/radio/worldwide.html and the
private Welsh station, WRI—Wales Radio International/Radio
Rhyngwladol Cymru http://wri.cymru.net/celtic/notes/notidx.htm
Both of these stations use Merlin's very powerful
short wave transmitters at Rampisham, in Dorset, to beam programmes
across the Atlantic and the Pacific, http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/rampisham.asp
54. As a result of the outrageous and catastrophic
terrorist attacks on the USA on September 11 2001—"9/11"
in American popular parlance—commercial air traffic in general
and tourism to countries such as Great Britain and Northern Ireland
have fallen dramatically. In an attempt to revive the number of
visitors to our shores during the past summer, especially from
the USA and Canada, the British tourist authority sponsored advertisements
on American and Canadian television. I wonder how successful these
will have been with stockbrokers dancing in Trafalgar Square,
someone playing tennis on the edge of a deep glaciated valley
in upland Britain and a large black bowler hat in the middle of
a field of mustard. Indeed, the US, although not the virtually
identical Canadian TV version, had an improved ending with the
Prime Minister looking circumspect and gently uttering the word
"welcome".
55. What a splendid opportunity has been
lost by the BBC World Service for advancing the cause of tourism
to this country and thereby "bringing benefit to Britain"
Its action in terminating short wave transmissions to North America
and Australasia has removed the possibility of its helping—if
only to a small degree—such a tourist venture.
Although this submission is of necessity long
it inevitably only deals with the main developments. Even though
I am aware that the Foreign Affairs Committee in the past has
made observations of and recommendations to the BBC World Service,
I trust that it will be possible for you to carry out at this
juncture a thorough enquiry into the workings, the value-for-money
costing and the real "benefit to Britain"—if any—of
the contemporary BBC World Service. Lamentably in any attempt
to appraise aspects of the British Broadcasting Corporation's
worth or value—and the World Service is far from being an
exception in this regard—one discovers that the Corporation
is coddled, swaddled, cosseted and cocooned in swathes of hubris.
Self-praise, self-congratulation and increasing target-attainment
hyperbole place the BBC World Service in the vanguard of the Corporation's
constant self-promoting eulogies. Is it any wonder, that after
decades of extolling the virtues of the traditional BBC World
Service, I now tend to view its contemporary operations as a modern
day manifestation of the renowned wisdom of Hans Christian Andersen
as depicted in his fable, "The Emperor's New Suit"?
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/8336/aesop/emperor.html
56. While most informed people would agree
that to keep abreast of contemporary communications technology
is a worthy cause for any international broadcaster, to dispense
with a technology which is still relevant is both foolish and
costly. The following pregnant comments are made in the introduction
to the Save BBC website: "The BBC World Service continues
to press its political masters for massive increases in funding
to boost service in under-covered areas of the world. Their most
recent request was for £76 million over three years (that's
over and above their regular budget, incidentally). We would like
to suggest to the UK Parliament that this figure be boosted to
£77.5 million, on the condition that the extra £500,000
per year be mandated to provide service to the under-served North
American and Pacific regions on the only medium that can provide
cost-effective service to such large areas, shortwave radio. Note
that the cost of restoring the service would be approximately
2% of the entire funding increase the BBC feels it is entitled
to. Not 2% of their budget; just 2% of the increase they're asking
for.
"We continue to believe that the BBC's
decision to cease broadcasting to North America and the Pacific
was wrong."
Mr R G Rose
December 2002
17 http: //www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/spending_review/spend_sr02/report/spend_sr02_repchap13.cfm Back
18
http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,755845,00.html
and Back
19
http://www.europaworld.org/issue17/johnreith12101.htm Back
20
http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,716262,00.html Back
21
http://wri.cymru.net/ Back
22
http://www.passband.com/ Back
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