The BBC World Service is to close five of its 32 language services and scale back radio transmissions in Russia and China in a cost-saving drive that has been attacked for undermining Britain’s soft power.
Ministers blamed the poor public finances for the biggest shake-up of the state-funded international broadcaster since the end of the cold war, cutting its headcount staff by almost a quarter and axing services for a weekly audience of 30m.
Critics warned that scaling back output – particularly to fast-emerging world powers with questionable human rights records – was short-sighted and endangered the UK’s international influence.
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