Russian propaganda is filling the void where the BBC has closed World Service radio services due to cuts
Russia and China could take over the BBC’s World Service radio frequencies and replace them with “propaganda” channels, insiders have warned.
The BBC fears it is losing a global battle against state-backed disinformation, with Russian and Chinese broadcasters looking to target stations that the World Service could close due to funding cuts.
The BBC and the Government are locked in tense negotiations ahead of this week’s spending review, with the broadcaster calling on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to shoulder the full cost of funding the international news service.
While there have been allegations about bias in coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict on the BBC Arabic channel, the World Service is generally viewed as a soft power asset, helping to promote the UK’s influence and values.
BBC insiders say that role is now threatened, pointing to its Arabic radio service in Lebanon, which closed after 85 years as part of a £28.5m savings drive.
‘This is Moscow’
Just months later, in October 2023, the Russian state-owned Sputnik news agency took over the frequency. Its news bulletin opened with “This is Moscow”, replacing the previous “This is London” introduction.
Broadcasting live from Beirut, the Sputnik station promised to deliver news of interest to Lebanese society and “convey a transparent and true picture of life in Russia”.
Insiders warn there could be a growing disinformation drive if the Government’s support for the World Service, which reaches 450 million people a week, is cut after the spending review.
BBC executives believe Russia and China could target former World Service audiences who have been left without impartial news broadcasts. Several foreign language radio services have already closed, including BBC Arabic and BBC Persian.
The FCDO currently pays £104m a year towards the World Service’s total budget of £366m, with the rest shouldered by the licence fee payer.
Despite that Government support, the corporation said in January that it had to cut a further 130 jobs from the World Service as part of a plan to strip out £6m worth of costs: 382 posts were closed in 2022, with the BBC facing a frozen licence fee.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy, facing cuts to the Development Assistance budget in order to pay for a rise in defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, has asked the BBC to draw up plans to run the World Service with up to a 2 per cent cut to the Government’s contribution, insiders said.
“If the sum [from the Government following the spending review] is cash-flat, or worse, it would naturally have consequences for our services,” a BBC source said. “We would have to make tough choices about where to pull funding.
“We saw what happened last time we made £28m cuts – the Russians took our former Arabic radio frequencies in Lebanon. It is now broadcasting unchallenged propaganda and narratives to local people. Russia and China are investing hard and we’re facing a disinformation storm globally.”
Areas where the BBC could be forced to withdraw next include Kenya, where the national broadcaster signed a deal to run Chinese state-produced content on its frequencies, prompting concerns that listeners are being fed pro-Chinese propaganda.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie has warned that news outlets controlled by Russia and China are spending between £6bn and £8bn a year on media platforms targeting audiences in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
He said recently: “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.”
£200m needed
Insiders suggested the BBC would need the FCDO contribution to rise to £200m to avoid further damaging closures to frontline services. The BBC’s commitment not to close any further language services expires at the end of 2025.
Disinformation experts warned against further cuts to the World Service.
“The potential cuts or constraints facing the BBC World Service threaten to deliver a serious blow to not essential impartial news for people around the world but to alternative narratives from Russia and China that undermine the liberal rules-based order essential to the UK’s prosperity and security,” Dr Andrew Dwyer, a lecturer in information security at Royal Holloway, University of London, told The i Paper.
Dr Jon Roozenbeek, a lecturer in psychology and security at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, added: “Authoritarian actors such as Russia and China are more than happy to jump in if the BBC leaves a gap.
“They see control over the media space as an essential component of geopolitical posturing, and the US [with its abandonment of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] and UK bowing out is to their strategic benefit.”
Vera Tolz-Zilitinkevic, a professor of Russian Studies at the University of Manchester, warned that the RT Russian state news network and Sputnik radio “excel compared to the BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera, on social media platforms such as Twitter/X and Facebook”.
However Professor Tolz-Zilitinkevic believes that bots make up a significant proportion of their followers. “These broadcasters want the West to panic about their actions. Exaggerating their actual influence can, inadvertently, play into the hands of the Kremlin.”
An FCDO spokesperson said: “We are not going to get ahead of the allocations process, but our track record of staunch support for the BBC World Service is clear. Despite a tough fiscal situation, we continue to back them, providing a large uplift of £32.6m this year alone, taking our total funding to £137m.
“This funding protected the current language services and supported the emergency radio stations responding to acute humanitarian need, including in Gaza, Sudan, and most recently Myanmar. The work they do as an independent and trusted broadcaster is highly valued by this government, as our continued financial support shows.”
Sources said the BBC had been asked to model scenarios of cuts of no more than £3m a year, with the FCDO itself having to identify “efficiencies and savings”.
The FCDO allocation from the Spending Review will be disclosed on Wednesday, with a final decision on the World Service allocation expected in the autumn.
A BBC insider admitted it is hard to justify asking the UK licence fee payer to fund radio and TV broadcasts for audiences around the world, who do not contribute financially.
They said: “Ultimately we think there is a strong case for the Government to fund all of the World Service – it’s a huge UK asset for security, the economy and the UK’s international influence.”
Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the Commons DCMS committee, has written to Lammy, demanding assurances over the World Service’s future.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We’re ambitious about what the World Service can do and recent research has shown that when it comes to international influence – it’s the UK greatest cultural asset.”
