91Èȱ¬

Commentators discuss the cuts at the 91Èȱ¬ World Service.

The director of global news Peter Horrocks says in the 91Èȱ¬'s editors' blog that quality will be maintained despite the cuts:

"In all the changes announced today, the aim has been to protect the WS, its quality and reputation and, where possible, our footprint. "Our choices are based on the needs of our audiences and the limited resources that we now have available."

The the cuts may have an adverse effect on diplomacy:

"Having now to find savings of £46 million a year may hurt not only the World Service's audience of 180 million listeners, but also Britain. As a tool of soft power, few marry softness with such power. It received £268 million last year. Pound for pound, it is one of Britain's punchiest brands."

Labour MP , calling the cuts "mean and stupid":

"These cuts are cheese paring by politicians who cheerfully spend £4 billion a year on the futile Afghan war and £100s of millions on palatial embassies including a generous flow of champagne at their receptions. The World Service greatly serves our mission to spread our principles and values throughout the world."

The that the UK may now struggle to be noticed on the world stage:

"The Government claims that no public service can be exempt from the impending spending cuts. And there are undoubtedly inefficiencies in Bush House, the World Service headquarters in London. But the proposed cuts are too severe.
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"The World Service helps to nourish democracy and political accountability across the world. Moreover, it produces much high-quality, impartial, and authoritative journalism. It exports British 'soft power' and remains an island of resistance to the global proliferation of celebrity news."

The director general of the 91Èȱ¬ that the World Service can survive these cuts:

"Supporters of the international role of the 91Èȱ¬ should not despair. Our global TV and online presence is growing, and in many parts of the world the 91Èȱ¬ is a more influential and widely heard voice today than at any point in our history. Across the globe, the audiences which will be lost to the 91Èȱ¬ because of today's announcements may be made up by new TV and web audiences."

Update 1630: that cuts to some of the language services are "not a catastrophe":

"Granted, in some parts of the world, the World Service lives up to its own billing as a cherished purveyor of disinterested news: in Sri Lanka or Burma, say, it probably really does provide a valuable service and bolsters Britain's so-called 'soft power'.
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"But in other parts, it's not actually needed. Government in the Balkans is scarily corrupt but it's not oppressive in a Burmese sense."

Links in full

• Peter Horocks | 91Èȱ¬ | Painful day for 91Èȱ¬ World Service
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