The UK is facing a growing challenge in countering the spread of “pure propaganda” from countries like Russia and China, as the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, has issued a stark warning about the impact of cuts to the World Service.
Davie has called for increased funding for the BBC’s global services, highlighting the detrimental effects of a decade-long reduction in government support for the World Service. Last year, the BBC made the decision to end its Arabic, Persian, and Hindi radio services, among others, in an effort to save £28.5m annually.
According to Davie, “malign powers” such as Russia and China are capitalizing on the void left by the BBC’s cuts, investing between £6bn and £8bn in expanding their global media activities. This includes broadcasting in countries like Lebanon, where Russian-backed media has taken over the radio frequency previously occupied by BBC Arabic.
BBC Monitoring has reported that the Russian output in Lebanon is filled with unchallenged propaganda and narratives, reaching local communities with ease. Davie emphasized that had the BBC been able to maintain its impartial radio output, it would have been much harder for these messages to gain traction.
The UK government used to fully fund the World Service until 2014, when most of the financial responsibility was transferred to the BBC. Currently, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office contributes £104m annually towards the World Service’s total budget of £334m.
Despite reaching 320 million people per week through radio, TV, and digital platforms, the BBC has had to make tough decisions, including discontinuing broadcasts in 10 languages and cutting over 380 World Service jobs in 2022. Davie explained that these cuts were a result of tight funding settlements and the limitations of relying solely on the UK license fee payer for financial support.
Davie stressed the importance of long-term strategic investment by the central government to combat the influence of foreign propaganda. He believes that it is not fair to burden UK license fee payers with the full cost and that this issue requires a national commitment to safeguarding the integrity of information dissemination on a global scale.
