Bbc Abandon World Service To Thailand

[toptuan]

The BBC World Service is recognised around the world for its impartiality and unbiased reporting

What a load of crap! It's impossible to put together a newscast without relecting the biases of those putting it together. A station funded by the government is going to take the side of government solutions to every societal problem...and that's exactly what the BBC (in Britain) and NPR (in the States) do.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey, I don't know what country you're from, but that's not the NPR I've known about for the last 40+ years. Always having been known as a left-leaning news organization, it is especially at odds with the conservative Bush administration during these last two terms. If your're American, maybe you need to go back to the states for a few months for a reality check.

[FreedomDude]

The BBC World Service is recognised around the world for its impartiality and unbiased reporting

What a load of crap! It's impossible to put together a newscast without relecting the biases of those putting it together. A station funded by the government is going to take the side of government solutions to every societal problem...and that's exactly what the BBC (in Britain) and NPR (in the States) do.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey, I don't know what country you're from, but that's not the NPR I've known about for the last 40+ years. Always having been known as a left-leaning news organization, it is especially at odds with the conservative Bush administration during these last two terms. If your're American, maybe you need to go back to the states for a few months for a reality check.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm in the United States right now, and believe it or not: I listen to NPR!

I guess I didn't do a very good job of making my main point: that EVERY news source is BIASED....AND there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT! But you can NOT refute the fact that the majority of people employed at NPR are left leaning. That's not even debatable. Although I'm less familiar with BBC, I'm sure they have their political leaning as well. Again, that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that.

I'm just always very suspicious of ANYONE who proclaims ANY news source as unbiased. I think people need to get there news from a variety of sources of as wide a variety of political leanings as possible. NEVER view any particular news source as the unbiased authority. I cringe every time I hear FOX new claim they're unbiased as well.

I should have made my point more clear. I apologize.

Edited November 18, 2005 by FreedomDude

[zzap]

God points, Freedom Dude.

But most of us have our preferences and little time or patience.

Personally, it just makes me puke every time I even read the words FOX "NEWS". Some services are simply more reliable and present the material in a way which makes the audience think further for themselves.

The BBC more often than not is one of them, though they get it wrong sometimes, too.

[gbt71fa]

BBC World Service (BBCWS)

The UK's Voice around the World

The BBC World Service is recognised around the world for its impartiality and unbiased reporting; its brand promotes respect for the UK abroad.

It is funded primarily through grant-in-aid from the FCO (£225m pa in 2004-05) but has complete editorial independence.

It continues to maintain its position as the world's leading broadcaster, transmitting programmes in English and 42 other languages to 146 million listeners per week. The World Service is received on FM in 139 capital cities.

The Government awarded the BBC World Service an additional £19.5 million in grant in aid for 2005-2008......etc..etc.....

Thailand is the only country outside Europe that will LOSE its BBC World Language services and I want to know why-why..WHY...????

The British Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok is recognised as being the Second largest of its type in the World (No 1 is in Washington)and offers the chance for all majour British Companies to become involved in the fastest growing and potentially one of the Richest regions of the Pacific Rim and what on earth do the BBC do....Cut this great lifeline...

Mean thinks its TIME to COMPLAIN.......anyone feel the same please feel free to drop a line to:

Jack Straw the Foreign Office Minister......he holds the purse strings...

FCO Ministers

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, is responsible for the work of the FCO.

He is assisted by four Ministers:

- Douglas Alexander MP

- Ian Pearson MP

- Dr Kim Howells MP

- Lord Triesman

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

King Charles Street

London.SW1A 2AH

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagena...d=1007029396122

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Unbiased and impartiallity, huh? Yeah, and the French army is feared the world over too, right?

[toptuan]

God points, Freedom Dude.

But most of us have our preferences and little time or patience.

Personally, it just makes me puke every time I even read the words FOX "NEWS". Some services are simply more reliable and present the material in a way which makes the audience think further for themselves.

The BBC more often than not is one of them, though they get it wrong sometimes, too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I LOVE Fox News. They support all my biases.

[zzap]

They support all my biases.

Well, that's what this so-called "News" channel is good for...

[Rinrada]

Further support from the honourable members of the Anglo Thai Society

The Anglo-Thai Society was founded in 1962 to foster the close and friendly relations that have existed between Great Britain and Thailand for over 125 years. The total of individual and corporate members now exceeds 300.

Lectures, receptions, visits to places of interest are organised by the Society and provide regular opportunities for members to meet. Two very popular annual events are the Summer Reception, held in early June at the House of Lords (kindly sponsored by Lord Geddes), and the Winter Reception in November, held at the Oriental Club.

The Society maintains close contact with the Royal Thai Embassy in London, and with Samaggi Samagom, the Thai students association in the UK, and contributes to the Pestalozzi Children's Village at Sedlescombe, where there are two Thai houses.

November 2005

The threat to the BBC World Service's Thai language broadcasting

The Anglo-Thai Society deplores the proposal to close down the BBC's Thai language broadcast service. T

his matter is urgent as it would appear that the BBC World Service is trying to effect this closure by the end of the year.

We therefore encourage all members of the Society to write at once to their MP, to the Foreign Secretary (The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw, MP, Seretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London SW1 2AH), to the Foreign Affairs Committee (Clerk: Mr. Steve Priestley, FAC, Committee Office, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA), and, of course, to the BBC itself, from the Governors to the Head of the World Service.

We provide below a model letter you might like to adapt or to follow. Thank you for any help you can give to this important campaign. Emeritus Professor Philip Stott, Chair, The Anglo-Thai Society.

Dear.....

Urgent Request to Keep the BBC Thai Service On Air

It is with considerable anger that I/we have learned of the proposed closure of the BBC World Service's Thai language section as part of the latest round of 'public service' cost-cutting. Such a move would be extremely disturbing for the people of Thailand, but also for all who strive to maintain and develop strong relations between our two countries.

In geopolitical terms, the proposal seems to be shockingly ill-judged. At a time when we share with Thailand the burgeoning threats of terrorism, of pandemics, and of natural disasters, such as the terrible 2004 tsunami, it is cavalier and undiplomatic in the extreme to remove from the people of Thailand the most highly regarded source of balanced reportage in the world. And we should not need to have to remind you that it would be equally disastrous for the UK, when the British Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok has grown to be second only to that of the US and the countries of the Pacific Rim are rising in economic and political influence, Thailand among them. Likewise, the importance of Thai students attending British universities can not be overestimated and Thailand is now a major tourist destination for UK citizens.

Furthermore, the small Thai section at the BBC is highly cost effective, and we question the basis on which this decision is being taken. Nation shall speak peace unto nation: no longer, it appears, even when the costs are small and the consequences deeply regrettable.

I/We are therefore requesting an urgent re-appraisal of so insulting a proposal on behalf of the 60 million people of Thailand and of those in the UK who work to sustain a warm friendship between our two great monarchies.

The World Service must remain a truly world service.

Yours Faithfully

[Cool Water Palace]

The head of the BBC World Service's Thai service has responded thus:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1644011,00.html

[Cool Water Palace]

Sorry. Correction: former head of Thai service.

[Rinrada]

The BBC Thai-language radio service

Latest update on the possible lose of the Service from the Nation,Dr Yongyud,Khun Prof. Philip Stott and now over 100 members of the British Parliament and my local branch of the outfit (letter to Jack-last night)...... This decision needs to be reversed.....history in motion and ACTION....

BBC THAI BROADCAST: Staunch fans bid farewell

Published on January 13, 2006

Doctor’s last minute London visit fails to save radio service

Today Dr Yongyud Wongpiromsarn will listen to his favourite radio programme for the last time.

At least for a while.

The staunch fan of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Thai Service is hoping the shutdown of the show will be only temporary.

Yongyud, who heads the “I Love BBC-Thai” group, will not sit idly by as his cherished programme is pulled off the air.

The doctor returned only yesterday from London, where he had appeared before some 100 British MPs during his campaign to petition the United Kingdom’s Parliament to reverse its decision to terminate the Thai-language broadcast.

He achieved more in London than he had expected: The MPs promised to bring the issue to a debate in the House, he said.

The BBC Thai-language radio service has served Thai listeners for more than six decades since its debut in 1941. Last October, however, management of the BBC World Service decided to include its Thai Service among the casualties of a cost-cutting initiative.

Yet members of the House disagree with the government-run BBC’s decision to axe its Thai-language radio programme, Yongyud said.

Several House members told him during his meeting with them that the BBC’s programmes were important mediums to keep British culture and opinion alive in countries like Thailand at a very low cost.

Thai anglophiles and British Thailand-lovers certainly agree on that.

Prof Philip Stott, president of the Association of Anglo-Thai Society, said the BBC Thai Service has served as a bridge between the peoples of the two kingdoms.

Yongyud also stressed to British lawmakers that the BBC Thai Service provided its listeners invaluable access to independent sources of information. “I told the meeting that in Thailand, there’s a political culture that keeps interfering with the media,” he said.

Unencumbered by government restrictions, the BBC Thai-language radio service was an alternative source of news for Thais, agreed Jeremy Dear, secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists in the UK.

“It is not too late for a change of heart,” he said, calling on British lawmakers to intervene.

The Thai service is just one of several being axed, including the native-language services in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Kazakhstan.

Fans of the Thai-language service will gather at Chulalongkorn University’s Book Centre at Siam Square Branch to see off the service’s last programme (to be aired from 5.30pm to 8.15pm) in style.

Even though this will be their last broadcast, staff said they would produce the programme in the routine, professional way.

From the head office in London and its office in Bangkok, BBC staffers will join to recount the highlights of the Thai Service’s 64-year history.

Yongyud and local BBC staffers hope the service will resume soon.

Subhatra Bhumiprabhas

The Nation

[sriracha john]

UPDATE

VOA to end Thai broadcasts

Washington (dpa) - The Voice of America (VOA) has followed the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in deciding to drop all Thai-language broadcasts, claiming budget restraints and new goals have forced hard decisions on the service.

The US government-funded global radio and television system, would become less polyglot and more focussed on television broadcasts to the "war-on-terror" region and on new technology such as the internet under the budget proposed by the White House Monday.

In addition to Thai, broadcasts in Croatian, Georgian, Turkish and Greek would be totally eliminated from VOA radio and television programming, according to the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Under the proposals, which now go to Congress for consideration, VOA's global English "News Now" programming, currently about 14 hours a day, would fall away, leaving Africa as the only recipient of VOA English programmes. Special English programmes that have taught the language to millions of people around the world would remain.

The English cuts were among the more "painful choices", a statement said. But Larry Hart, a spokesman for the board, pointed out that more energy will be put on the newer mediums of internet and television. Most of the English reductions will affect short-wave transmission, which is used less in the world.

Proposed increases of 4.3 per cent for international broadcasting in 2007 would go primarily to Middle East broadcasting networks operated by the US - including Radio Sawa and expansion to 24-hour-a- day broadcasts by the Middle East television programme Alhurra. Iran and Afghanistan would receive more transmissions.

Russian, along with Albanian, Bosnian, Serbian, Macedonian and Hindi, would no longer be heard on VOA radio waves, but would be available on VOA television programmes, said Hart.

Georgian would continue to be broadcast on television and radio by RFE-RL, and Russian would be available on RFE-RL radio, which is headquartered in Prague. RFE-RL would eliminate its Macedonian broadcasts.

VOA was founded in the throes of World War II, in 1942, and currently delivers more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 100 million people in 44 languages.

That number would fall to 39 under the proposed budget. Broadcasts would continue to such tiny language groups as Afan Oromo and and Tigrigna in the Horn of Africa, Tibetan, Vietnamese and Burmese in Asia, and Kinyarwanda and Kirundi to Africa's Great Lakes region.

The broadcasting board oversees most functions of VOA, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty (RFE-RL), Radio Sawa in Arabic and Radio and TV Marti to Cuba.

[Rinrada]

Still waiting for a reply from Jack Straw but latest news is that they (BBC/UK Gov) aint budging on the issue.....however still hanging in there......

bit of an update....

Thai BBC must return as protests continue

The NUJ is calling for the immediate reinstatement of the BBC Thai service after a Thai senator reported that people living in Bankok were having to listen to (illegal) pirate radio stations to find out what was going on at the current huge anti-Thaksin protests in the city.

The senator, Somkiat Onwimon, said that previously they would have been tuned into the BBC Thai Service.

The service is one of 10 BBC language services cut by the foreign office at the beginning of this year.

The protests in Bangkok reflect growing anger in the country over the prime minister's alleged corruption and abuse of power.

Labour MP John Grogan, who is spearheading a campaign against the World Service cuts, will write to the director of the BBC World Service, Nigel Chapman, on Monday (20/3/06) urging him to temporarily reopen the Thai Service during the political crisis.

He is also gathering signatures from the 56 MPs who signed the Early Day Motion on the Thai Service.

In a House of Commons debate on the World Service on March 7, Mr Grogan pointed to the demonstrations and the debate about democracy in Thailand and said: “For the past 60 years, the BBC World Service Thai service, almost uninterrupted, has been adding to that debate and, in the traditional role of the BBC, has been helping to keep the domestic broadcasters and media honest.

“However, in January the Thai service was cut, so there is no reporting on the BBC Thai service about possibly the most momentous political events in Thailand since 1992. “

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear added: “We warned that the cuts to these services would mean the loss of a vital source of information within countries such as Thailand where the World Service had many loyal listeners.

“This blocks the access people have to the truth and as result strikes at the organs of democracy. The government must rethink its decision.”

[khall64au]

Up until very recently, many on this planet "saw" Thailand as the centre of a "democratic" world. Now that we are blind, who will lead the way?