𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The BBC World Service is in danger of “withering” and losing its position as the most trusted international broadcaster as Russia and China spend billions on a flood of propaganda. The two states are together spending up to £8billion a year on global media while the World Service faces real-terms cuts.

A cross-party group of MPs have sounded the alarm, warning that the British broadcaster is “in danger of losing ground to its rivals” with its budget falling by more than a fifth between 2021-22 and 2025-26. The Labour Government is told it “risks opening the door to propaganda from hostile states such as Russia filling the void it leaves behind”.

The powerful public accounts committee (PAC) was “deeply troubled” to learn the World Service has still not been told how much funding Yvette Cooper’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) will provide for the coming year.

The World Service, which is also funded by the licence fee, reaches an average weekly audience of 313 million in 43 languages, with the MPs describing the broadcaster as a “crucial soft power instrument”. However, it has seen a fall in digital audiences of 11% between 2021-22 and 2024-25.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who chairs the committee, said the World Service is “being diminished by poor governance and short-sighted funding decisions”.

He added: “The Government must be clear-eyed about the realities of a diminishing audience for the BBC World Service. As it cuts back, it risks opening the door to propaganda from hostile states such as Russia filling the void it leaves behind, who are spending billions of pounds in this field. At a time of heightened geopolitical tensions and declining media freedom the UK cannot afford to lose such a crucial soft power instrument. Both Government and the BBC should seriously think about how the World Service’s influence can be bolstered around the world, rather than risk its reach withering by degrees year on year.”

In its evidence to the committee, the foreign policy think tank the Henry Jackson Society stressed the need for a “strategic bulwark against state-sponsored disinformation and propaganda, particularly sponsored by China and Russia”.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We welcome the PAC’s report which recognises the importance of the BBC World Service as the most trusted international news provider globally, and the need for secure, long-term funding. This is why we are calling for the government to take back full funding of the World Service as part of the BBC Charter Review.”