Martin Dewhirst on "BBC’s Russian Service: debate continues"

Martin Dewhirst — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:05:28 +0000

I think that one particular point in this discussion has not yet been made with sufficient clarity. Like many Russians (I am an Englishman), I want and need to keep abreast of what is happening in Russia, so I regularly access, among other media outlets, Ekho Moskvy, Radio Svoboda, Novaia gazeta, newsru.com, grani.ru and ej.ru. I also listen to and read on line the BBC Russian Service (BBC RS) to get British and other Western views on developments in Russian culture, society, politics and the economy. But so far as news about Russia is concerned, I don't see how, even with an increase in allocations, the BBC RS could compete in quality and range with what any of the above listed outlets provide. This is why I think that, if any section of the BBC RS has to be pared down, it should be News, rather than Features. Especially when I am abroad I also tune in (as do people in Russia) to the BBC RS to get news and well-informed views - and not only by Brits - about what is happening in the U.K. and elsewhere in the West. These BBC RS feature programmes are
unique and cannot be adequately replaced by snippets on news programmes. Yet some people in Bush House seem to be unaware of the contents of the Russian media outlets listed above and to believe that the values espoused by Lord Reith are no longer relevant in the 21st century. Of course, with increased funding and a more professional personnel policy the gradual degradation of the BBC RS could be stopped and then reversed. I was struck by the recent claim of some people in Bush House that they wanted to 'strengthen' the BBC RS. This is the very verb that was used by Soviet propaganda experts after, for instance, weakening the journal Novyi mir (New World) by forcing its chief editor, Aleksandr Tvardovsky, to resign. Bureaucrats of the world seem to be uniting ever more indistinguishably from one another in their efforts to create an Animal Farm on a global scale.

BBC’s Russian Service: debate continues,

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:09:14 +0000

From Dr.John Dunn, 10 November

More detail on the impending changes to the BBC's Russian service,
including a list of the programmes due to close and a long interview with
the head of the Russian service, can be found at:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/programmes/newsid_7716000/7716295.stm>

On the question of broadcasting platforms the BBC does have a problem:
short-wave reception can be difficult and of poor quality: remember the old
joke about the distinguished foreign visitor who learned his English by
short-wave radio; short-wave transmissions can also be jammed (what did the
Russians do with all their jamming transmitters?). Nor does there seem to
be scope at present for expanding other radio outlets. In this context the
wish to concentrate more on the Internet does seem understandable.
Nevertheless there are problems over and above the incalculable threat of
the site being blocked. The first is the BBC creates thge impression of
concentrating its efforts on the c.20% of the Russian population that has
access to the Internet, and by emphasising the use of direct broadcasting,
podcasts and the like, on that subset of the 20% that has access to the
Internet in a form that allows them to use those facilities, which is tough
if you don't have broadband or have access to the Internet only at work.
The other problem is that the more bells and whistles you add to a web-site,
the harder it becomes to use, as the existing BBC English-language web-site
shows only too well. Reception of BBC programmes over the Internet is far
from perfect and, worryingly, seems to have got worse after recent
'improvements'.

Incidentally, I wonder to what extent the BBC, along with other
quasi-official British institutions, are contemplating the implications of
the recent court decision in favour of the British Council.

John Dunn.
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Letter to the Times from Robert Chandler and others

12 November

Sirs, In this age of spin, Nigel Chapman's readiness to advertise the fact that the Russian service audience has almost halved (from 1.3 million to 750,000) during the last 3 years of his management is an example of honesty and openness that we should all cherish. Nevertheless, it would be more heartening still if he showed some awareness of the possibility that the decline of his audience might result from a decline in the quality of the service's output. The wish to make current affairs programmes acceptable in style and content on Russian FM stations may have backfired.

It is also possible that this loss of audience is partly due to the short waves cut of 2003 and the loss of the repeats which were the only way of enabling programmes to reach an audience spread across 11 time zones. His lack of awareness of Russian geographical reality (not to mention political reality) is astounding. There is no way of delivering ‘stronger journalism' ‘at times when it has most audience impact' except through the use of the ‘repeats' he speaks of so dismissively. He seems to regard the whole of Russia east of the Urals as an irrelevant appendage to Moscow and Petersburg.

It is equally extraordinary that he should refer to the programmes that are being lost as ‘light feature programmes with little analysis'. A high proportion of the signatories to the 7 November letter have themselves contributed to these programmes; they understand Russian, and unlike the Director of the World Service, know what the programmes are about. Their themes vary from the work of Doris Lessing to the closure of the British Council, from Rostropovich's work in Britain to the Archbishop of Canterbury's book about Dostoevsky, from the analysis of judgments made by the European Court of Human Rights with regard to incidents in Chechnya to a comparison of English and Russian children's playground songs. It is possible that the audience for the service might have increased rather than declined if the BBC had broadcast more, rather than less, of such programmes.

There is an urgent need for a public inquiry into all aspects of the World Service. The problems are not confined to the Russian service. In an attempt ‘to bring producers closer to their audiences', more and more language services are being moved from London to cities in the country concerned. The Urdu service, for example, may well be relocated to Pakistan, where it will obviously be all-but impossible for it to retain its editorial independence. The BBC has already, in 2007, agreed to obtain prior clearance from Pakistan's media regulatory authority for all contents programmes intended for broadcast on a local FM radio station. There are similar stories with regard to other countries.

Yours Sincerely,

Tony Cash (Producer Russian Service 1963-68)
Robert Chandler (translator of Russian literature, co-chair Pushkin Club)
Teresa Cherfas (television and radio producer)
Martin Dewhirst (Honorary Research Fellow, University of Glasgow)
Marina Katzarova (RAW in WAR - Reach All Women in WAR)
Diran Maghreblian (former Russian service producer)
Anna Pilkington (Lecturer, Russian Department, Queen Mary, University of London)
Franklin Reeve (Novelist, poet, scholar, Russian translator)
Andreas Schonle (Professor, Russian Department, Queen Mary, University of London)
Irina Shumovitch, (producer BBC Russian Service 1989-2003)

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open Democracy News Analysis - BBC’s Russian Service: debate continues, - Comments

Martin Dewhirst on "BBC’s Russian Service: debate continues"

BBC’s Russian Service: debate continues,