Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08 - Foreign Affairs Committee Contents


APPENDIX II

SOUTH ASIA REPRIORITISATION AND EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE

  During 2008 proposals to restructure the Hindi, Urdu and Nepali services and move part of their production effort to Delhi, Islamabad and Kathmandu were put forward.

  The South Asia restructuring is fundamentally an editorial plan, and is critically important for the future of the three services. The BBC is facing tough competition in the region and it has to keep improving the depth and relevance of its output in order to "stand-out" in ever more competitive markets. Moving more production to where the audiences are will help get a better understanding of what listeners want. The services will be able to give them more authoritative content and respond to events more quickly, whilst at the same time building stronger links with local partners.

  This is not a new policy in BBC World Service. Indeed, overall some 25% of language staff work abroad already, delivering programmes for their local audiences. Services in Arabic, Spanish for Latin America, Portuguese for Brazil, Swahili in Kenya, Hausa in Nigeria, Pashto and Persian in Afghanistan are among those with a substantial proportion of personnel working in major bureaux, complementing language staff in London. All of the services which have used this model have reaped great successes in terms of creating relevant programming that chimes with local audience needs.

  In addition, in order to meet BBC World Service's 3% savings target, as set by the Treasury, the Hindi, Urdu and Nepali services need to save about £0.5m over the next three years, and the alternative to the proposed relocations would be to reduce output and close posts in London. With the proposed relocation, there is no reduction in the output and it will be produced more efficiently by making use of enhanced bureaux in India, Pakistan and Nepal. Additionally, although posts will close in London, more will open in the region.

  On the issue of BBC World Service's editorial independence, production teams outside the UK work to exactly the same editorial guidelines and standards, and the same level of professionalism, as staff in Bush House. Suggestions that staff based outside the UK produce substandard output or censor themselves are misguided.

  The BBC has total editorial control over its programming whether broadcast directly on short wave, on medium wave, or via third party distribution arrangements. It is at the core of any agreement with any partner station, and for the relationship to continue, local partners must accept this, including those in South Asia. If any attempt was made to interfere with output, the partnership would cease forthwith.

1 October 2008







 
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Prepared 8 February 2009