The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ in the Arab world
³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service
³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Washington DC news bureau: "The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service is perhaps Britain's greatest gift to the world this century."
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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service facts and figures
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- ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ knows anecdotally that it has a big audience but is unable to survey for safety reasons. However, unless the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ can get proper verification of the figure, then it does not count to the global audience estimate.
- ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service produces 1,258 hours of programming a week in 33 languages; that's over 65,400 hours a year.
- ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service is now available in 152 capital cities on FM – that's around 75 per cent of the total.
- ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s international news services – ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service radio, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'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.
- ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service's grant-in-aid funding from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office for 2007/8 is £252million.
- The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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.
- ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Arabic was the first non-English language service, beginning in January 1938.
- During its 75 years, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s public purposes and explicitly guarantees editorial and managerial independence from the British Government.
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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service is part of the wider ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and also operates under the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Royal Charter.
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Like the rest of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service is accountable to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Trust's role to act as trustees for the public interest, at home and abroad. It oversees all ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ activities. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Trust sets the Corporation's strategic direction and holds ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ management to account for its performance.
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The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Trust's prime responsibility is to ensure that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ remains independent, resisting pressure and influence from all sources, including the British Government.
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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service funding
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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service because they believe that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is independent from any form of editorial control from government.
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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service's creation in 1932, successive British Governments have recognised that an editorially independent ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s editorial independence is non-negotiable.
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"Nobody gets on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s airwaves unless there are legitimate editorial reasons. Both the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and the UK Government are clear that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is not there to promote the views of the British Government or any other government, interest group or individual."
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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Persian television
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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service is to launch a television news and information service in the Farsi (Persian) language for Iran. ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Persian television will launch in 2008 and will be based in London. It will complement the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'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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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ proposals for the service were drawn up by senior ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ management. These were approved by the then ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Governors – the body that oversaw the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and ensures the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s independence from the UK Government. They were then submitted to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) for their consent as the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Persian television service will draw upon the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s well-established and trusted Persian radio and online services.
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