The Foreign Secretary should ‘hold the
BBC’s feet to the fire’ to ensure that the interests of the World
Service are protected, says the Foreign Affairs
Committee.
In
a report published on the last day that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has
funding responsibility for the World Service, the Foreign Affairs Committee
says that it has “clear differences” with the BBC on new
arrangements for governance of the World Service. The Committee regrets that
the World Service now has no direct voice on either the BBC Executive Board or
the Management Board, and it says that it “remains to be seen”
whether representation of the World Service’s interests at Board level by
the Director of News and Current Affairs will indeed safeguard the distinct
nature of the World Service.
The
Committee welcomes the assurance given in evidence by James Harding, the
BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, that the £245 million
budget for the World Service in 2014-15 will be used as a baseline for the
following two years.
Sir Richard Ottaway, Chairman of the Committee, said today:
"We have always held reservations about the move to
licence fee funding for the World Service and what that would mean for the
World Service’s budget, and its ability to be heard amongst all the other
competing voices within the BBC.
There is some good news coming out of our inquiry: the
Director of News and Current Affairs made a clear commitment that next
year’s funding for the World Service will serve as a minimum for the
following two years. We welcome that. But what is really needed is longer-term
protection at institutional level, and we continue to be concerned about the
absence of a direct voice for the World Service on either the BBC’s
Executive Board or the Management Board.
The
World Service does an outstanding job in projecting the UK’s values
abroad. It is an essential part of the country’s ‘soft
power’. We have yet to see whether the BBC will be the custodian that the
country needs, and so we welcome the Foreign Secretary’s assurance that
he will “hold the BBC’s feet to the fire” to protect the
interests of the World Service. We urge him and his successors to honour that
commitment"