The demise of the BBC Russian Service
Yesterday, Saturday 26th March, 2011, marked a sad day in that it sees the demise of the BBC Russian service.
The BBC has a long history of broadcasting to the world. It’s the world’s largest international broadcaster, transmitting in 32 different languages around the world, Russian being one of them. According to the BBC Charter, it is politically independent, (something which is often disputed by foreign governments who point to the government funding of the BBC through the license fee arrangement and the Foreign and Commonwealth grant for the operation of the World Service itself), non-profit and non-commercial.
The BBC World Service began in 1932, transmitting just in English to English Speakers around the world, “in the outposts of the British Empire”. Six years later, in 1938, the first foreign language service was added, in Arabic. German was added in 1938, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, and by 1942, broadcasts in all the major European languages.
It was illegal to listen to their programmes in Occupied Europe during the War, and the Soviet Union, (amongst others), made a considerable effort to jam broadcasts so that their citizens couldn’t listen in. Apparently, one of the powerful transmitters used for this purpose was based in Kyrgyzstan.
The Russian service began transmitting programmes just after the Second World War, in 1946, and quickly gained a following and a healthy reputation amongst listeners in the former Soviet Union. It wasn’t always appreciated by the authorities, however, and wide scale jamming started in 1949, and was to continue until 1987. It wasn’t always effective, and during the period of the cold war a number of the “intelligentsia” would tune in. Even General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev admitted to being an listener – it kept him up to date on events during the abortive August coup in Moscow in 1991 when he was incarcerated in his dacha in the Crimea.
As time has passed, however, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the “end” of the Cold War have combined with the economic realities of life in the twenty-first century and the BBC have had to consider reviewing their services. The German service, for example, ended transmissions in 1999 and several other European language services have also disappeared. Russian continued for some time, in partnership with local Russian stations. That partnership, however, has apparently been precarious and deteriorated as relationships between the UK and the Russian Federation have faltered.
Although broadcasts in Russian are being discontinued, the service is still maintaining their website, www.bbcrussian.com, where some programnmes will still be available for download.
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To be fair, I don’t often listen to broadcasts by the service, (they are in Russian and although I understand Russian well enough, it’s always hard work and requires additional concentration), and, to be honest, I generally prefer to watch and listen to English language programmes if given a choice. I do sometimes, however, visit their webpage or download some of their podcasts if they look interesting.
I’m sorry that the service is coming to an end, even if I don’t use it that much myself. It seems to me that as well as being regarded as a tried and trusted “friend”, it has served as a bridge between peoples.
I am more worried, however, for what it might portend for the BBC Kyrgyz Service which started in April 1995. As well as maintaining a Kyrgyz language section in London, the BBC also maintains an office in downtown Bishkek where they prepare programmes for broadcast locally, as well as reports for the main World Service broadcast from London covering articles about Kyrgyzstan that may be of general, global interest.
Although radio programmes are quite popular here, especially in rural regions, I have to admit that, whereas I do watch some local television, I rarely listen to local radio. I understand that the local office has a high reputation and is popular in the rural regions. It hasn’t, however, all been smooth going. There have, over the years, been a few problems. For example, the service was taken off the air for a short time, apparently due to the failure to pay certain fees, (something which the BBC denied at the time.)
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The demise of the service seems ironic when you remember that the motto of the BBC is “Nation shall speak peace unto nation”. If Russian, (one of the top most common spoken languages in the world, and one of the six official languages of the United Nations and its agencies,) is not seen as a priority for the mandarins at the BBC, then I wonder what future there is for Kyrgyz.
I hope it is not an omen of things to come.
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Bishkek