The corporation said it’s a result of limiting in Grant-in-Aid funding from the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office. “We no longer have an empire so why do we need to broadcast to the world?” said Martin from Ashford, UK in his comment on Daily Mail website.
These cuts hit the BBC Ukrainian service, which produces a two hour radio news program, 5 times a week, brief news bulletins, as well as updates a BBC webpage in Ukrainian. Starting from April 2011, the service will end their radio programs, focusing those services on online and new media content and distribution.
Some Ukrainians are actually not happy about losing their program from London. For example, Lora from Luhansk commented at bbc.ua: “Ukraine is suffering now from the attacks on press freedom. Our mainstream media have been already changed: lost their voices, humiliated and feared. Please, take into consideration that democracy in Ukraine is suffering, and let the radio BBC Ukrainian live.” Thirteen years ago, I would have shared Lora’s opinion.
That time, in the spring of 1998 I spent a month in London at BBC World Service as an intern, under the project “Mass Media in the UK”. A team of young editors from around Ukraine attended classes led by prominent British journalists, visited radio & TV stations, political & regulatory bodies, universities, etc. I saw the fame of British international journalism of old-fashioned recorded reels and big old microphones, the 73-year-old narrow corridors of Bush House in central London, and marble walls yellowed with time.
But time goes by. Media technologies dramatically have changed journalism in the past decade since I visited Bush House – the Web replaces traditional broadcasting. Bush House will stop being the headquarters of British journalism in a year: the World Service is getting ready to move from the old building by the end of 2012.
I don’t share a desperation that young Ukraine’s democracy would die exactly without radio from London. The web more and more provides Ukrainians with opportunities to access any news, expert opinions, share own views and discuss everything with anyone from anywhere. That’s why I share an optimistic stance the BBC Ukrainian director Maciek Bernatt-Reszczynski who recently said in his blog: “The website bbc.ua will stay as a solid informational bridge between Ukraine and the UK.”
Viktor Kovalenko is a public relations and communications professional. You can read his blog entries at http://viktorkovalenko.blogspot.com/
