Category: Â鶹Éç;
World
Service
Date: 13.07.2004
Printable version
Â鶹Éç World
Service had "a year of considerable achievement" and "maintained
high standards in its news programmes" during 2003/4 according
to Â鶹Éç Governors.
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Writing in the introduction to the Â鶹Éç World Service
Annual Review for 2003-2004, issued today, Â鶹Éç Governor Dame Pauline
Neville-Jones, who has special responsibility for the Â鶹Éç's international
services, said: "2003/4 was a year of considerable achievement
for Â鶹Éç World Service.
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"Its successes occurred in the demanding environment
of the aftermath of the war in Iraq, and continuing tensions in the
Middle East.
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"Covering international conflicts,
and their repercussions, with accuracy and depth, against the backdrop
of polarised world opinion, is, arguably, the biggest test a broadcaster
can face.
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"Over Iraq Â鶹Éç World Service fully met it. At the
same time it continues to improve other aspects of its programmes and
distribution – all evidence of an organisation which can respond
strongly to short-term tests tests without neglecting the long-term
challenges of more competitive broadcasting landscapes."
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The World Service's editorial processes, its programmes
and websites were subject to rigorous outside examination by the Governors'
World Service and Global News Consultative Group, which includes distinguished
journalists, under the chairmanship of Dame Pauline Neville-Jones.
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Speaking about the Governors' World Service and Global
News Consultative Group's report, she says: "In times of global
conflict, listeners worldwide turn to Â鶹Éç World Service for news, analysis
and debate.
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"It expects to face intense scrutiny, and for audiences
to measure its news output against the yardsticks of accuracy, timeliness
and objectivity. The results were positive. We were satisfied that the
Â鶹Éç World Service has systems in place to ensure daily editorial rigour.
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"It has maintained high standards
in its news programmes, and the studies concluded that Â鶹Éç World Service's
English and Arabic output, which was examined in detail, was impartial."
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Nigel Chapman, Acting Director, Â鶹Éç World Service, said
in his overview of the year: "In an increasingly divided world,
our editorial values of impartiality, objectivity and accuracy proved
more important than ever.
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"For audiences from the Middle East to the United
States, we helped to make sense of events that were often violent and
unforeseen.
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"On radio, the increased availability of World
Service programmes on FM has been essential to meet fierce competition
from local and national stations.
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"By the end of the year, World Service output was
being broadcast on FM in 139 capital cities.
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"There was a slight fall in the estimated global
radio audience, however, from 150 million to 146 million weekly listeners,
largely because it has proved difficult for the Â鶹Éç to obtain an FM
presence in some areas."
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He concluded that the Â鶹Éç World Service produced "programmes
and services of consistently high quality, which reinforce the Â鶹Éç World
Service's reputation as the world's leading international broadcaster".
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Highlights of the Â鶹Éç World Service
Annual Review
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Editorial Standards
• The special studies commissioned by the Governors' World Service
and Global News Consultative group into journalistic standards concluded
that Â鶹Éç World Service's editorial processes were robust and Â鶹Éç World
Service was impartial.
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• An independent assessment by the Royal Institute
of International Affairs (Chatham House) assessed Â鶹Éç World Service
output to the Middle East as balanced. It noted that the output was
regarded highly in the Middle East, with high ratings for trust, reliability,
objectivity and impartiality.
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Â鶹Éç Global reputation – trust and objectivity
• A separate group of surveys of 16 selected markets around the
world, including Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, and USA,
reveals that, according to audiences in each country, Â鶹Éç World Service
is the most trusted and objective international broadcaster compared
to its main competitors in each market.
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Audiences
• The new global audience estimate indicates a drop of four million
radio listeners compared to 2003's global audience estimate of 150 million.
This figure takes account of a significant drop in short wave radio
listening year-on-year that has been partially offset by a big rise
in listening via the higher quality audibility of FM.
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• In Iraq, the launch of FM broadcasts in Baghdad,
Basra and other major cities helped to secure a weekly audience of 1.8
million. A more recent survey earlier this year provisionally indicates
an increased audience of 3.3 million in the country. It also shows that
one in four listen to the Â鶹Éç World Service in Baghdad.
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• In the Afghan capital Kabul, Â鶹Éç World Service
enjoys a 60 per cent weekly reach.
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• Audiences in the USA increased from 3.9 million
to a record 4.7 million in the world's most developed media market.
One in five opinion formers in New York and Washington listen each week
while the figure in Boston is even higher at nearly one in three.
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• In the UK, 1.3 million are regular listeners
to Â鶹Éç World Service programmes, which are now available in a range
of digital and cable services.
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New Media
• Monthly page impressions rose from 228 million in March 2003
to 279.3 million a year later, which equates to more than 16 million
monthly individual users or five million weekly users.
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HIV/Aids season
• The HIV/Aids season in the two weeks leading up to World Aids
Day in December 2003 was the most ambitious project ever attempted by
World Service and the first to involve all 43 language services simultaneously.
The season was described by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as "an
enormous contribution to raising awareness".
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Finance
• Â鶹Éç World Service spent 89.1% of its income on content production
and delivery and 10.9% on support functions and overheads.
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• Â鶹Éç World Service achieved efficiency savings
of £3.6m.
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World Service Trust
• The Trust, which aims to reduce poverty in developing countries
through innovative use of the media, launched new projects in Nigeria,
Burma and Cambodia while funding reached a record £10.2m from
sources including the UK's Department for International Development.
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Monitoring
• Â鶹Éç Monitoring achieved record scores in its annual customer
satisfaction survey of stakeholders (FCO, Cabinet Office, MoD and Â鶹Éç
World Service), particularly for usefulness, range, selection and responsiveness.
Notes to Editors
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• The Â鶹Éç World Service's global audience figures
over the last decade were 120 million in 1992, 124m (1993), 130m (1994),
133m (1995), 140m (1996), 143m (1997), 138m (1998), 143m (1999), 151m
(2000), 153m (2001), 150m (2002), and 150m (2003).
• Â鶹Éç World Service is funded through Grant-in-Aid from the Foreign
Office. The grant for 2003/4 is £220m.
• The Â鶹Éç World Service broadcasts in 43 languages including English.
The other languages are: Albanian, Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Bulgarian,
Burmese, Caribbean-English, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, French, Greek,
Hausa, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Kazakh, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Kyrgyz,
Macedonian, Mandarin, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian,
Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovene, Somali, Spanish, Swahili,
Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese.
• In the UK, World Service in English is available on 648 MW in
south eastern England. In addition, overnight on Â鶹Éç Radio 4, Â鶹Éç Radio
Wales and Â鶹Éç Radio Ulster and via digital radio, digital satellite
and the internet.
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The English Network can be heard on the Â鶹Éç's digital
multiplex in the UK, Freeview digital channel 80 or in Europe on the
Astra satellite, channel 865.
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Â鶹Éç World Service Extra - a new radio service broadcasting
in the key languages of Afghanistan and the surrounding region - is
available on digital satellite channel 902.
• Outside the UK, Â鶹Éç World Service is available on short wave;
on FM in 139 capital cities; and selected programmes are carried on
almost 2,000 FM and MW radio stations around the world.
• High quality reception of World Service programmes is available
via satellite in Europe and North America.
• The Â鶹Éç World Service website - bbc.co.uk/worldservice - contains
extensive, interactive news services available in English, Arabic, Chinese,
Hindi, Persian, Portuguese for Brazil, Russian, Spanish and Urdu with
audiostreaming available in 43 languages.
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It also contains detailed information about World Service
broadcasts, schedules and frequencies in all languages.
• The Governors' World Service and Global News Consultative Group
is comprised of Dame Pauline Neville-Jones DCMG – Â鶹Éç International
Governor (Chair); Professor Monojit Chatterji – Professor of Applied
Economics, University of Dundee; Bill Emmott – Editor, The Economist;
Sir Michael Perry – former Chairman, Centrica plc; and William
Shawcross – journalist and author.
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