BBC director general Tim Davie has urged the UK government to invest in the World Service amid fears cuts have allowed disinformation and propaganda to spread.
In a speech at the Future Resilience Forum, Mr Davie raised concerns that the scaling back of the BBC's World Service, which operates in more than 40 languages, has allowed foreign actors to spread false narratives.
Russian-backed media in Lebanon is now transmitting on the radio frequency previously occupied by BBC Arabic, which was axed last year, after 85 years of broadcasting.
It was part of a package of World Service cuts – which the BBC blamed on a switch to online news consumption and a difficult economic picture – to save £28.5 million ($37.2 million) a year, under which the corporation scrapped radio broadcasting in 10 languages.
Up until 2014, the UK government paid for the World Service. It then handed over most of the cost to the BBC.
Now, amid the absence of BBC Arabic, Mr Davie has warned that unrest in the Middle East is at a “critical moment of challenge for stability and democracy worldwide”.
Describing the spread of disinformation as a “critical threat” to global democracy, Mr Davie said it was vital the UK took action and invested in the world's “most trusted” service.
“Free and fair reporting has never been more essential – for global democracy and for audiences of most need around the world,” he said. “Rapid advances in generative AI have made it cheaper and easier to spread misleading narratives that can potentially influence elections. What we are facing is an all-out assault on truth worldwide – and with it security, stability and democracy.
“No one should underestimate the impact the BBC has had in the global news landscape to this point – as an entirely independent force, with no purpose other than to bring trustworthy information to those who need it most.”
He said the service is now “operating under intolerable pressures” and that its income in the decade to 2020 fell by 30 per cent.
“I think the case is strong for the UK government to look again at taking back responsibility for funding the BBC World Service, as it did for the first 80 years of its life,” he said.
“Because, as our resources have come under growing strain, we’ve been forced to make savings. Closures such as Arabic and Persian Radio have already led to a loss in our global audience of around 40 million.”
Speaking at the meeting on Monday, which was attended by international political figures, Mr Davie warned that news outlets controlled by Russia and China are outspending BBC investment “by a multiple of thousands”.
“Together they are spending an estimated £6 billion to £8 billion on expanding their global media activities – investing hard to grow their audiences in key markets in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America,” he said.
“Across Africa in particular, Russian media is incredibly active in promoting its narratives – with social media influencers amplifying propaganda and so-called activists live-streaming pro-Russia rallies, and this investment is seeing significant returns – not only in terms of the reach of Russian state broadcaster RT and China’s CGTN, but also in terms of trust.
“Perhaps most worrying from the BBC point of view is that we can now see clear evidence of the fact that, when the World Service retreats, state-funded media operators move in to take advantage.”
The latest Global Risks Report from the World Economic Forum found “the most severe global risk” over the next two years will be “foreign and domestic actors” leveraging misinformation and disinformation to “further widen societal and political divides”.
Mr Davie highlighted how the BBC's retreat in Africa has led to other companies filling in the gaps. He said state broadcasters Kenya’s KBC and Liberia’s LBS have both taken up Chinese output on TV and radio.
The BBC monitoring teams detected Russian output being broadcast in Lebanon on the day thousands of pagers exploded, he said.
“What they heard was unchallenged propaganda and narratives being delivered to local communities,” he said. “Had the BBC been able to retain our impartial radio output, these messages would have been much harder for local audiences to find. In this context, the further retreat of the BBC World Service should be a cause for serious global concern.”
The corporation this month released a 90-second film offering a glimpse into the BBC’s fight against disinformation. It follows the launch of BBC Verify, which comprises a team of about 60 journalists who use the latest tools and technology to explain their fact-finding to viewers.
In 2022, the BBC announced the proposed closure of around 382 posts at the World Service as well as the closure of its Arabic and Persian radio services.
In April, an inquiry was launched into the future funding of the service. It will focus on the corporation’s influence as a soft power and look to establish whether increased government support is needed.
The international broadcaster, owned and operated by the corporation, is predominantly funded by the UK licence fee but receives additional grant funding of £104.4 million from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The World Service has agreed not to close any language services under its current support package but this condition is set to be lifted in 2025.
