Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 41
BBC World Service language coverage remains inadequate for key Indo-Pacific nations.
Conclusion
[The Refresh is more specific in announcing that £20 million will be provided to enable the BBC World Service to protect all 42 World Service language services, support English language broadcasting and counter disinformation.] This is also a welcome development, though World Service language coverage still needs to be restored or initiated for several Indo-Pacific countries, for example, broadcasts in Malay (the language of Malaysia, a Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) ally) and Hokkien (spoken in Singapore, Taiwan and Fujian province of China) have been abandoned, and there have never been World Service broadcasts in two national languages of ASEAN countries which we wish to influence, Khmer (the language of Cambodia) and Lao—Cambodia and Laos are the two countries in Southeast Asia closest to China.
Government Response Summary
The government partially agrees, recognising the importance of the World Service's role; however, the visible response then pivots to economic connections and does not directly address the specific need to restore or initiate language coverage for several Indo-Pacific countries.
Paragraph Reference:
41
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
48. The Government partially agrees with the Committee. The Government recognises the importance of the World Service’s role, reaching audiences across the globe and providing impart [...truncated...] nnovation Partnership, we continue to deepen our economic connections with this dynamic region and open doors for British business. We have also supported strong UK private sector participation in the annual ASEAN Business and Investment Summit and are using the British Investment Partnerships toolkit to promote public/private collaboration in areas such as renewable energy.