The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ in the Arab world
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service aims to be a global hub for high quality information, communication and entertainment.
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It is the best known and most respected voice in international broadcasting.
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At least 183 million people around the world listen each week to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service's programmes, consisting of news, information, education and entertainment in 33 languages.
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Available on radio, online, and now television in Arabic, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service aims to create a forum for the exchange of ideas across cultural, linguistic and national boundaries.
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Independent market research consistently shows that listeners respect ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service for the accuracy, editorial independence and expertise of its journalism. It is the radio service most listened to by opinion formers around the world.
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service started broadcasting on 19 December 1932. Its role and contribution to the world have been repeatedly endorsed by prominent world leaders over the last 75 years.
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Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General, said in 1999, at the opening of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Washington DC news bureau: "The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service is perhaps Britain's greatest gift to the world this century."
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service facts and figures
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- ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service's weekly global audience estimate, compiled by independent surveys, is a record 183 million, up 20 million on last year.
- There are countries, for example Somalia, where the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ knows anecdotally that it has a big audience but is unable to survey for safety reasons. However, unless the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ can get proper verification of the figure, then it does not count to the global audience estimate.
- ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service produces 1,258 hours of programming a week in 33 languages; that's over 65,400 hours a year.
- ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service is now available in 152 capital cities on FM – that's around 75 per cent of the total.
- ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service's audiences in Africa and the Middle East are now 83 million – up 9.4 million on last year.
- The estimated audience for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio in the Asia & Pacific region of the world is up 15.1 million to 82.2 million in total.
- During 2006/7 there was a large weekly audience increase in Bangladesh – up 8.3 million. New near-national surveys found large audiences in DR Congo (8.9 million) and Afghanistan (9.8 million).
- Weekly audiences in radio markets in India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Rwanda all grew by over a million during the year.
- The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s international news services – ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service radio, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World television and the international-facing online news service bbcnews.com – attract a combined record global weekly audience of over 233 million, with some people using more than one service. This is up from around 210 million in 2005/6.
- The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s international-facing online news sites attracted a record 704 million page impressions in March 2007, compared to 499 million in March 2006.
- There were a record 38.5 million unique online users across the globe in March 2007, up from 32.8 million a year ago.
- ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service's grant-in-aid funding from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office for 2007/8 is £252million.
- The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service currently broadcasts in 33 languages including English. The other languages are: Albanian, Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Burmese, Caribbean-English, Cantonese, French for Africa, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mandarin, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese for Brazil, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese. There are online sites in each language.
- ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Arabic was the first non-English language service, beginning in January 1938.
- During its 75 years, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service has broadcast in 36 other languages, including Afrikaans, Belgian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Luxembourgish, Malay, Norwegian, and Welsh for miners in the South American region of Patagonia.
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The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s constitution
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is established and operated under a Royal Charter, granted by the Her Majesty The Queen, to provide broadcast services in the UK and abroad.
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This document sets out the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s public purposes and explicitly guarantees editorial and managerial independence from the British Government.
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service is part of the wider ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and also operates under the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Royal Charter.
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Like the rest of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service is accountable to the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Trust – a group of 12 prominent and independent people from different parts of British society, appointed under the Royal Charter.
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It is the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Trust's role to act as trustees for the public interest, at home and abroad. It oversees all ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ activities. The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Trust sets the Corporation's strategic direction and holds ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ management to account for its performance.
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The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Trust's prime responsibility is to ensure that the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ remains independent, resisting pressure and influence from all sources, including the British Government.
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service funding
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service's broadcasting costs are met by a separate Parliamentary grant-in-aid through the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, totalling £252m in 2007/08.
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The British Government funds ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service because they believe that the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s independent approach to journalism brings credit to Britain.
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The Government believes that the global provision of high quality journalism – which strives to be accurate, impartial, editorially independent, and balanced with the widest possible range of views about an issue – projects Britain's values of trustworthiness, openness, fair dealing, creativity, enterprise and community. They believe this promotes interest in Britain around the world.
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These goals are achievable because the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is independent from any form of editorial control from government.
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service Director, Nigel Chapman, says: "Whenever I go abroad, the first question I am always asked is how we can be funded by the British Government and remain editorially independent, and not be the Government's mouthpiece as with many other state broadcasters.
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"Since ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service's creation in 1932, successive British Governments have recognised that an editorially independent ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service – rooted in British values of trust, fairness and impartiality – reflects better on Britain than a system where the broadcasting organisation is set up to promote a particular government view. We have been established to truly be a World Service for the world."
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He continues: "The only discussions I have with the British Government are about 'where' and 'how' we broadcast, not the 'what'. That is to say we discuss the countries we broadcast to, and the technological means by which we are available to audiences in those countries.
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"These are legitimate discussions to have with the British Government in the context of deciding how we use our finite funding. But we never ever discuss our editorial content. The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s editorial independence is non-negotiable.
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"Nobody gets on the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s airwaves unless there are legitimate editorial reasons. Both the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and the UK Government are clear that the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is not there to promote the views of the British Government or any other government, interest group or individual."
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Persian television
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service is to launch a television news and information service in the Farsi (Persian) language for Iran. ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Persian television will launch in 2008 and will be based in London. It will complement the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s existing Persian language radio and online services.
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It will initially broadcast for eight hours a day, seven days a week, from 17.00 to 01.00 hours – peak viewing time in Iran. It will be freely available to anyone with a satellite dish or cable connection in the region.
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ proposals for the service were drawn up by senior ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ management. These were approved by the then ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Governors – the body that oversaw the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and ensures the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s independence from the UK Government. They were then submitted to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) for their consent as the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is obliged to do under the agreement with the FCO.
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The operating cost of £15m a year will be funded by the UK Government. Funding for the new service was announced by then UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in a speech in October 2006. The funding was confirmed by the current Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling in October 2007.
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The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Persian television service will draw upon the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s unmatched newsgathering resources.
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Broadcast at primetime in Iran, it will showcase accurate, impartial, balanced news and analysis from a global perspective. It will also show investigative current affairs programmes, alongside quality ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ factual, cultural and educational documentaries. The channel will cover international and major regional issues.
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It will also carry multimedia discussion programmes and debates in conjunction with the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s well-established and trusted Persian radio and online services.
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