Tim Davie, FCDO and DCMS to give evidence on the future of the BBC World Service
On Tuesday 17 December, at 14.00, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee and International Development Committee will hold a joint evidence session examining the future of the BBC World Service.
Meeting details
The session will consider whether the Government should resume the full funding of the BBC World Service, and whether the Service has the resources it needs to deliver impartial and factual journalism globally. The Committee will hear from current BBC Directors as well as Ministers from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The first part of the session, with BBC Director-General Tim Davie and Global Director and Deputy CEO of BBC News Jonathan Munro, will explore issues around how the BBC World Service is paid for now and in the future. It will examine whether it has the resources to maintain its reputation as the world’s most trusted provider of news, its role in countering mis and disinformation, and how the financial pressures on the BBC are impacting decisions on the BBC World Service and wider BBC services.
In the second panel, Minsters from the FCDO and DCMS will give evidence.
This panel will consider the soft power value of the BBC World Service and its impact on the UK’s influence with world leaders and publics abroad. Questions in this panel may cover the benefits of the BBC World Service to the UK’s goals in international development and trade, foreign policy and inward investment.
MPs may ask witnesses how BBC World Service reporting in conflict zones like Sudan or Gaza helps local populations to access up-to-date and potentially life-saving information, and how the BBC World Service collaborates with aid agencies or NGOs. This panel may also explore what impact budget cuts to BBC World Service language programming may have on those living in areas affected by conflict or instability.