China

49.  In February 2007, the World Service announced its decision to "reallocate" resources in China in response to persistent short-wave frequency interference. In its memorandum to our previous inquiry into the FCO Annual Report 2007-08, the World Service said that until midsummer 2008, blocking of Mandarin radio and online content had remained "deep and persistent", but that following complaints by journalists covering the Olympics, blocking was lifted from 31 July, although what would happen in the future remained uncertain. The memorandum also reported that access to online news material in English had been unblocked in March 2008. However, in the same month, BBC journalists from the Mandarin service had been refused visas allowing them to report on China's Party Congress. Immediately before the Beijing Olympics, the invitation to the Head of the BBC's Chinese Service to cover the Games had been withdrawn.

50.  In its written submission of September 2009, the BBC World Service indicated that online restrictions were relaxed in the weeks before the Olympic Games but were re-imposed in the following months. The website bbcchinese.com (the World Service site which contains news content) remains blocked in China. (However, the second BBC Chinese website, bbcukchina.com, is not blocked, and its content is now being syndicated by 24 leading online partners. Traffic on this site rose over the year by 57%, reaching nearly 90 million page impressions in June 2009.) The Chinese Government issued an internal circular to all media organisations ordering them not to have any business cooperation with the BBC, three Chinese partner sites have removed BBC non-news content from their sites and BBC Chinese producers are not able to get journalist visas to China.[73] Subsequently, in November 2009, Peter Horrocks confirmed to the Committee that the situation in China remains "as bad as it was".[74]

51.  In our previous report we expressed regret at the obstruction of radio and internet access, noting that it was "detrimental to the Chinese people."[75] We impressed upon the Government the need to "make strong representations to the Chinese authorities with a view to encouraging a less restrictive policy".[76] In its response of April 2009, the Government noted that it continues to raise concerns with the Chinese Government in relation to the restrictions on access to information.[77]

52.  We conclude that the partial liberalisation of media access to China during the Olympic Games was a temporary phenomenon, and that this is deeply regrettable. We welcome the World Service's efforts to overcome obstruction and restriction in China, and welcome the subsequent success of bbcukchina.com. We recommend that the Government should continue to insist to China that the broadcasting restrictions which are currently in place serve no useful purpose and should be lifted.

Russia

53.  In both our previous annual Reports dealing with the work of the World Service, we discussed the impact of tensions in UK-Russian bilateral relations on the Service's operations in Russia,[78] and we discussed in particular the decision of the owners of the Moscow-based Bolshoye Radio in 2007 to stop carrying BBC Russian programmes on FM.[79] Peter Horrocks described this as "the main way in which we believe that the Russian authorities have made life more difficult for us".[80] He explained that the principle concern was not about "technological blocking but more about political perspective and making it difficult for our radio content to get to audiences in Russia".[81]

54.  On 8 October 2008, the World Service announced that in light of the media restrictions it faced in Russia, it was planning to increase investment in bbcrussian.com, including the launch of a new online rolling news service, and to "re-focus" radio resources, increasing investment in news and current affairs, while ending production of some short news bulletins outside key programme blocks (which were designed for Russian FM partners with whom it no longer had agreements) and closing longer format non-news and current affairs 'features'. We have previously welcomed the BBC World Service's strategy in Russia, and identified a focus on online and medium-wave services as the best way to reach Russian audiences.[82]

55.  In 2008-09, bbcrussian.com was revamped, and a number of new initiatives were launched, including an archive area of significant historical radio programmes from the past 45 years featuring the voices of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the poet Anna Akhmatova and Alexander Kerensky (Prime Minister after the February 1917 Revolution) on the site. Furthermore, the World Service noted that a partnership with a web publication, Caucasian Knot, has enabled the site to offer a forum for bloggers from Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia and North Ossetia to discuss key issues faced by them; and live debates broadcast on radio and online from Moscow. Peter Horrocks described the website as "a successful way of engaging new audiences in Russia".[83] The website bbcrussian.com attracted 385,000 unique users weekly in September 2009, and despite a formal mobile partnership, use of the Russian mobile news site was 122,000 page impressions a month.[84] Online engagement had also benefited the interactive radio programme "when people have come to the website and then taken part in … radio programmes in greater numbers, because of a stronger online presence".[85]

56.  The current estimate for audiences for BBC Russia radio services throughout Russia is 680,000 listeners. Given the problems encountered with radio distribution, it is difficult to measure the popularity of content in terms of pure radio. The last specific offline audience measurement by BBC was conducted in 2007 (prior to the problems with the FM service) and covered Moscow and St Petersburg, where weekly listening averaged 1.9%. Recent official (but non-BBC) radio ratings in Moscow indicated that weekly audience for BBC radio in Russia was 2.2% in June and 1.8% in July, equating to around 200,000 listeners a week in Moscow.[86]

57.  We conclude that the continuing difficulty in distributing radio content to audiences in Russia is deeply regrettable. We welcome the success of the World Service's strategy to overcome this by increasing investment in online and non-FM radio services. We particularly welcome the fact that this investment has resulted in expanding the World Service's impact in Russia through reaching new audiences.

Sri Lanka

58.  BBC World Service monitors the distribution of BBC content by partner organisations closely. In February 2009, the BBC suspended FM programming to the Sri Lankan national broadcaster SLBC after a number of instances of editorial interference with programmes and news reports in English, Tamil and Sinhala. Talks with SLBC's Chairman have been ongoing since then, and the World Service is "optimistic" that FM programming will resume and reported "encouraging signals".[87] Peter Horrocks identified the "end of the year" as a "realistic time scale".[88] As of 11 January 2010, BBC World Service programming on FM to Sri Lanka had not yet resumed. However, the cabinet approval expected in autumn 2009, was eventually given on 6 January 2010. The World Service said that this delay was caused by the impending general election in Sri Lanka, which caused a freeze in decision making. It said that "with the elections … coming up later this month, we hope to be back on air as soon as possible".[89]

59.  We conclude that the decision to allow the World Service to resume broadcasting in Sri Lanka is to be welcomed. We recommend that the World Service notify us of any further delays, should any occur, after the Sri Lankan elections.

Rwanda

60.  The BBC was recently taken off air on FM in Rwanda, after accusations from the authorities that it had broadcast material denying the genocide. Peter Horrocks described this response as an "over-reaction".[90] BBC broadcasts remained off air for "a couple of months" but have since been restored.^.[91] In the same period, the Rwandan Government decided not to provide interviews to the Great Lakes Service, which, Peter Horrocks explained, made it "even harder to do properly balanced coverage". The Rwandan Government are now giving interviews, and the BBC are trying to re-establish confidence.[92]

61.  We conclude that it was very disappointing that the BBC World Service was taken off the air in Rwanda, and that the Rwandan Government refused to give interviews to the Great Lakes Service. We welcome the fact that the Rwandan Government are now giving interviews, and recommend that the Government through its mission in Rwanda take active steps to support the World Service in re-establishing confidence in its coverage in that country.

Azerbaijan

62.  In Azerbaijan, the Azeri authorities banned all international radio broadcasters from transmitting on FM from January 2009. The BBC is working on a resolution to this situation, but at the time of writing, all international broadcasters remain off the air in Azerbaijan.[93]

63.  We conclude that the ban on international radio broadcasters in Azerbaijan is unacceptable, and detrimental to the interests of the people of Azerbaijan. We recommend that the Government support the BBC in its attempts to resolve this difficulty and to restore the transmission of BBC FM broadcasting in Azerbaijan.

74   Q 12 Back

75   Foreign Affairs Committee, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08, para 318 Back

76   Ibid. Back

77   Second Report of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Session 2008-09, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08: Response of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Cm 7585, April 2009, p 24. See also Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2005-06, East Asia, HC 860, paras 436-38. Back

78   Foreign Affairs Committee, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08, para 31 Back

79   In 2007 the Committee considered claims that the BBC Russian Service was weaker than the main news. It found no evidence to support these claims, but did conclude that "the development of a partnership with the international arm of a Russian state broadcasting network […had put the] BBC World Service's reputation for editorial independence at risk" (Foreign Affairs Committee, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2006-07, paras 298-301). Back

80   Q 41 Back

81   Ibid. Back

82   Foreign Affairs Committee, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08, para 323 Back

83   Q 41 Back

84   Ibid. Back

85   Ibid. Back

86   Ev 22 Back

87   Qq 45 and 47 Back

88   Q 44 Back

89   Ev 23 Back

90   Q 49 Back

91   Qq 50-51 Back

92   Q 49 Back

93   Q 55 Back