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House of Lords debate,
11 February 2011 |
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There was a debate on the Middle East in the House of Lords and
considerable support from all sides of the house for the BBC World Service.
Here are the key statements (bold type indicates our emphasis). See report in Hansard, 10:00-13:30
and 13.30-14:05 At the end of the debate the government spokesman, Lord Howell said
this: I can tell noble Lords now that we are
discussing the implications with the World Service of the package that was
announced and are in close contact with it. The Foreign Secretary has
mentioned the possibility of additional funding and we are discussing the
options with the World Service. He then went on to give his view of the impact of the shortwave
closures (see last paragraph). Baroness Symonds: (Labour
peer: Opposition Spokesperson for Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2010- in
the House of Lords) The question for us is what help and
support we can offer to the institutions growing in the Middle East to find
their own way forward. We will not do that by public lecturing – I
agree strongly with what the Minister has said on that. The sort of help and
support that the British Council gives, and which the Westminster Foundation
for Democracy is rightly acknowledged as nurturing, is what is needed. I am
glad to hear about the £5 million fund that the noble Lord told us
about. It is a good idea, but we already have the institutions in this
country that could help so much on the ground. I know that the Minister may
find this problematic but, frankly, the cuts being made to the Westminster
Foundation for Democracy, the British Council and the World Service are just
plain wrong. If Ministers really mean what they say about values, democracy,
partnership and support, as opposed to making speeches about them, they must
recognise that the savings are paltry in their effect on our economy. They
are completely misconceived in so far as they are fettering the sort of help
that we can give in the region. Lord Fowler: (Conservative
former minister, including Secretary of State for Employment 1987-90) Like the noble Baroness on the opposition
Front Bench, I much regret that in the current critical circumstances, where
perhaps we could have some influence, we are cutting back on the BBC World
Service. That seems a very foolish thing to do at this point. I would
have thought that this was the time to develop that service and try to
develop our influence rather than to reduce it. Lord Judd: (Labour
former Minister of State: Overseas Development 1976-77, Foreign and
Commonwealth Office 1977-79 and director of Oxfam) Some of the things that the government
have been doing of late, as
the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, has
underlined with regard to the BBC World Service, are quite extraordinary.
These are the very times when these kind of activities become more
important than ever. Lord Hannay: (Crossbench:
UK representative at the UN 1990-95) With our own policies, this is surely no
moment – and here I join with the noble Baroness, Lady Symons, and many
others – to cut back on any aspect of the BBC World Service
broadcasting to Arab countries, nor on the British Council's activities in
those countries. It is surely rather a time to expand them. I do not want to get into a general
debate now about the cuts in the World Service, which I greatly deplore, but
I hope that the Minister will say that the government will urgently review
the services provided by the BBC and the British Council to the Arab world. These cuts were introduced before the
events that we are debating today, so there should be no shame about a course
correction. Since the World Service has identified £26m-worth of its
broadcasting as devoted to developmental objectives, without getting a penny
from DfID, it should be possible to find modest additional funds that do not
involve a further squeeze on the budget of the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office. Lord Anderson: (Labour) As an aside, I recall when I was once in
the western Sahara that my host at lunch left suddenly when his watch alarm
went off. I asked why he had set it so and he answered that it was because
the 1 pm news on the BBC World Service was starting: then he ran out to hear
it. I echo the view of other noble Lords that we should look again at the
cuts to the World Service. Lord Triesman: (Labour,
previously Under Secretary at the Foreign Office) There are lots of cultural things that we
can do, not least of which is that we really ought to look at how we
support the British Council and the World Service. I wholly support what
the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, said about DfID money in that regard. It is
astonishing to me that, having gone to such lengths to set up Arab and Farsi
TV services, within months we cut the resources for one of our best advocates
of soft power. That is just completely astonishing. Lord Howell of Guildford: (Conservative,
government spokesman, appointed Minister of State at the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office on 14 May 2010) The noble Baroness as well as several
other noble Lords, including the noble Lords, Lord Hannay, Lord Judd and Lord
Triesman, concentrated with considerable knowledge and pinpoint accuracy on
this question of soft power and why at this time there were proposed cuts in
certain services from the BBC World Service. I can tell noble Lords now
that we are discussing the implications with the World Service of the package
that was announced and are in close contact with it. The Foreign Secretary
has mentioned the possibility of additional funding and we are discussing the
options with the World Service. That is the position now. I hope that
that at least gives some indication of a less than totally negative response
to these concerns. I would add that what was to be cut
– or proposed to be cut, anyway – was the shortwave service. The technological facts are that the shortwave
service is being less listened to, because the world is now dominated by
online services and a multiplicity of television services, including the BBC
world television services and Arabic services. That is how things are going.
I am not in any way suggesting that the age of radio is finished; in many
ways, it is more important than ever. But there is a different pattern
emerging. Quite aside from austerity and budget cut requirements, which are
undeniable – it would be silly to pretend that they were not taking
place – there is a change in the technological pattern of
communication. Our soft power programmes must adjust to that as well. I
thought that I would get that over at the beginning, because that is the
position that we are in now. |
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