UK losing ‘propaganda’ battle to Russian media – BBC chief
Funding cuts to the BBC World Service have allowed Russian and Chinese media outlets to spread “unchallenged propaganda” across the Global South, the director-general of the British state media giant has complained.
The BBC World Service broadcasts in around 40 languages to an audience of 320 million people per week. Two years ago, the network cut more than 380 jobs and stopped radio broadcasts in ten languages, including Arabic and Persian.
In a speech in London on Monday afternoon, Davie is expected to argue that “when the World Service retreats, state-funded media operators move in to take advantage,” according to remarks shared with British media outlets in advance.
Russia and China are “expanding their global media activities – investing hard to grow their audiences in key markets in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America,” Davie will say, claiming that “across Africa in particular, Russian media is incredibly active in promoting its narratives, with social media influencers amplifying propaganda and so-called ‘activists’ live-streaming pro-Russia rallies.”
“Kenya’s state broadcaster KBC has taken up Chinese output on TV and radio, as has Liberia’s state broadcaster LBS,” he will say. “Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Russian-backed media is now transmitting on the radio frequency previously occupied by BBC Arabic.”
“And this investment is seeing significant returns, not only in terms of the reach of Russian state broadcaster RT and China’s CGTN, but also in terms of trust.”
Davie will complain that “Russian-backed” journalists spread “unchallenged propaganda” in Lebanon on the day that thousands of Hezbollah’s communication devices simultaneously exploded in an apparent Israeli sabotage operation. “Had the BBC been able to retain our impartial radio output, these messages would have been much harder for local audiences to find,” he will claim.
Despite Davie’s claims of independence, the BBC is an almost entirely state-funded operation, financed by an annual license fee of £169.50 ($221) owed by every British household with a television or device capable of receiving broadcasts. The UK’s Office for National Statistics classifies the fee as a tax, and the BBC as part of the “central government sector” of the UK economy.
The British Foreign Office also pays £104 million ($135.5 million) of the World Service’s £334 million ($435.3 million) annual budget, and is the largest financial backer of the BBC’s ‘Media Action’ department. This department, which is also funded by the governments of the US, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the EU, the UN, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, claims that it spends this money fighting “disinformation, division and distrust” in two dozen developing countries.
Davie’s grievances echo those of the US State Department. After announcing a raft of sanctions on RT and its parent company last month, department official Jamie Rubin told reporters that “one of the reasons… why so much of the world has not been as fully supportive of Ukraine as you would think they would be… is because of the broad scope and reach of RT, where propaganda, disinformation and lies are spread to millions if not billions around the world.”
RT was banned from multiple social media platforms after the sanctions were announced. However, the network’s deputy editor-in-chief, Anna Belkina, stated afterwards that RT “isn’t going anywhere” and “will continue to find new ways to reach audiences – in every corner of the world.”
