BBC executives are trying to raid Government funds intended to tackle world poverty in an attempt to lessen the impact of cuts on the World Service. A secret memo leaked to the Telegraph shows that the BBC has lobbied ministers to divert £25 million out of the budget of the Department for International Development (DfID) and into its own finances.
If the BBC were successful in being awarded £25 million of DfID’s funding, the memo states that £12 million of the proceeds would be used to launch an Urdu-language TV channel in Pakistan, which would help to respond to the “fearmongering of local news providers”.
on Jan 30th, 2011 at 22:26
What an absurd headline, The Telegraph gets more tabloid with every passing day and quite rightly is subject to an investigation into the ethics of journalists purporting to be constituents recording private conversations at their surgerys.
The document states: “If limited DfID funding were provided for dedicated services that met development purposes, World Service could avoid some of the most damaging cuts and invest in new services that could contribute to the stabilisation of Pakistan and Afghanistan, help prevent radicalisation in sub-Saharan Africa and maintain the BBC’s presence in rural India.”
The first few words says it all. Limited funding for services that met development purposes. Does the memo say that proceeds that don’t meet this aim or is that the Telegraph’s interpretation. There’s no direct quote.
This was raised in Parliament on Wednesday:
Don Foster, LD:
Does the Foreign Secretary accept that the World Service makes a huge contribution to our international development agenda? Is he willing at least to discuss with the Secretary of State for International Development whether his Department, which currently makes no contribution, could make a small contribution?
William Hague:
I point out to my right hon. Friend that there are merits in the changes to the Russian and Chinese services, for the reasons that I have given about changing patterns of usage. It is not clear that if the BBC World Service had a few million pounds extra, keeping those services exactly as they are would be the best use of that money. However, that would be for the World Service to decide. I am looking at whether additional funding can be provided in this financial year to help with the restructuring costs. It is not impossible that we will find some additional money for the World Service. A good part of the public money that is spent on the World Service is ODA-able-official development assistance-expenditure, so it falls within that category. I think that my colleagues in the Department for International Development and all other Departments would agree with my assessment that public spending discipline has to apply to all parts of the public sector, including the BBC World Service.
Thus confirming that public money spent on the World Service can be considered development assistance expenditure. The Department for International Development’s budget was not affected by the 2010 Spending Review which has resulted in much criticism, including from guess who the Telegraph on January 3;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7228534/50m-of-Governments-international-aid-budget-spent-in-the-UK.html
There’s 50 million for the BBC World Service then!