Decision on BBC World Service is due

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We take it for granted that the BBC World Service, based in London, is listened to each week by 146 million people worldwide in 43 languages - but nothing is more unusual. Extraordinarily, a foreign broadcaster is regarded as a more reliable and trusted source of news than their own, a reputation that has been hard earned and is one of Britain's most precious diplomatic and cultural assets.

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The BBC has to do better across the waterfront - from its journalism to the technology with which it broadcasts if it is to hold its audiences. If Britain wants soft power, it needs to pay for it and support the organisation that delivers it. This week's final decision by Gordon Brown on the World Service's bid for funds - and the government's in the months beyond on the terms of the renewal of its charter - will settle its fate. The BBC, home and World Service alike, stands or falls together.

The dilemmas are encapsulated by the debate over whether the government should find the £28 million to launch a BBC Arabic television service to compete with the Qatar-based satellite TV station Al Jazeera. Its exclusives and willingness to see the world through Arab eyes - American and British force 'occupy' Iraq for example - has produced dramatic growth, especially since 9/11. It has now become the leading Arab international broadcaster. The BBC's Arabic service, which sticks firmly to the BBC's news and current affairs guidelines, is still highly trusted, but in key markets like Egypt and Saudi Arabia it trails Al Jazeera. Worse, it competes in many areas with short-wave radio against the glamour of TV. Without major investment and TV, the future is bleak.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1253688,00.html

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