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| Sri Lankan Dalugoda Gilbert, 70, sits among the ruins of his home destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami |
BBC Chairman
BBC World Service has an extraordinary
reputation. It remains a cornerstone of the
BBC's position globally and continues to
return great benefit to Britain in terms of
reputation and esteem.
But this position cannot be taken for
granted. The same technological forces
that are transforming the media landscape
in the UK are at work worldwide; in the
case of BBC World Service, these are
compounded by great social and political
upheavals around the globe. This poses
an enormous challenge to BBC World
Service. Increasingly its audiences have
access to other sources of news and
information, and they are also applying
increasingly stringent standards when
assessing the accuracy and objectivity of BBC
reporting. This report shows how BBC World
Service is grappling with these problems.
In order to bring independent judgement
to bear on World Service output, we call
on the BBC Board of Governors' World
Service and Global News Consultative
Group. This is composed of distinguished
individuals, including non-broadcast
journalists. Each year they review BBC
World Service output and subject its
programmes and websites to rigorous
external examination. This year they met
under my chairmanship.
A summary of our deliberations is included
in this report. In general, the results were
positive. We were encouraged to note
that in the wider Islamic world the BBC's
reputation for trust and objectivity – which
had slipped following the UK's involvement
in the Iraq war – has now improved.
Looking further ahead, the UK
government's Green Paper on renewing
the BBC Charter makes it clear that the
BBC must review its priorities constantly
to ensure it is responding appropriately to
changing audience needs. We feel those
needs would be well served by the launch
of a BBC Arabic television service. The UK
Government decided against funding this in
the 2004 spending round and the BBC is
currently considering what can be done
from within existing resources.
The BBC welcomes the opportunity
presented by the Green Paper to review
the present portfolio of 43 language
services with a view to significant change.
For the past seven years, the BBC Board
has benefited from the wise counsel of
Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, who stood
down from the Board in December. As
the BBC's international governor, she was
an outstanding champion of BBC World
Service and BBC World and we are greatly
indebted to her for the expert guidance
she gave in this demanding role.
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Chairman's introduction |
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