Fund BBC World Service or risk losing 'information Cold War' to Russia and China, government told

The Government must take back responsibility for funding the World Service, the BBC has said, or risk losing the “information Cold War” to Russia and China.

Richard Sharp, the BBC chairman, warned that the service is in jeopardy without a substantial increase in funding, but this cannot be met by the corporation.

“Our commitment has to be to deliver maximum possible value for the licence fee. So we have to ask ourselves how far it is appropriate for audiences in Leicester to continue to pick up the tab for services in Lagos,” Mr Sharp said.

The World Service was funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) until 2014, when responsibility was transferred to the BBC.

However, Mr Sharp said that “financial pressure means that we have now reached a crunch point”.

In a speech to the Whitehall and Industry Group, Mr Sharp said: “I believe the case is now very strong for the Government to look again at taking back responsibility for funding the BBC World Service at what is a critical moment for Britain and for democracy worldwide.”

The BBC spends just under £300 million per year on the World Service, topped up by an FCO grant which is currently £93,000 per year.

Last year, the Government gave an additional £4.1 million in emergency funding to support Ukrainian and Russian language services, in an effort to counter disinformation about the war.

But Mr Sharp said that the World Service needs greater investment if it is to compete.

“The Russians and Chinese are together investing billions of dollars in their state-backed services, massively expanding their operations across Africa, South Africa and the Middle East. They are outspending our World Service investment by a multiple of thousands,” he said.

“The reality is that we have now entered an information Cold War, with the UK’s democratic integrity and national security at stake.

“It is a struggle that the UK - and all those who believe in democracy - cannot afford to lose.”

Mr Sharp maintained that “the BBC, and our World Service in particular, is seen as the global gold standard. There might be many critics of the BBC, but there can be few who prize Britain’s place in the world who do not value the World Service.

“Its biggest critics are those foreign governments that want to restrict free speech. And that is telling in itself.”