Journalists with the BBC World Operation have claimed that the organization’s intentions to relocate its Vietnamese service from London to Thailand threaten journalistic freedom. They added that there was a history of Thai journalists being kidnapped by the Vietnamese government.
Staff members criticised BBC executives in particular for failing to realise that simply because both nations are in south-east Asia, it did not automatically follow that Vietnamese citizens would feel at home in Thailand. Even in Thailand, it is dangerous to criticise the Vietnamese government, according to a World Service employee quoted by the Guardian. Notably, Vietnam is a one-party state run by the Communist party of the country, and journalists are not allowed to work freely there. As a result, the majority of the BBC’s Vietnamese-speaking employees are based in London.
As part of a cost-cutting initiative, the BBC is shifting roughly 400 employees from the BBC World Service to digital platforms. As part of broader cuts of £500 million, the organisation said that its foreign services required to make savings of £28.5 million ($31 million), which unions blamed on the UK government. According to the company, online news is increasingly more popular. A shift to ‘digital-first’ is therefore justified, particularly in light of the BBC funding freeze and rising operating expenses.
Azerbaijani, Brazil, Marathi, and Mundo are just a few of the eleven language services that are currently available exclusively online. Seven additional languages will join them: Chinese, Gujarati, Igbo, Indonesian, Pidgin, Urdu, and Yoruba. Despite some production leaving London, the broadcaster claims that no language services would be cut. Thai, Korean, and Bangla services will all relocate to Bangkok, Seoul, and Dhaka, respectively. Nairobi will serve as the transmission location for the ‘Focus on Africa’ television newscast, it noted.
She continued, ‘The way audiences receive news and material is changing, and the task of reaching and engaging people all around the world with high-caliber, dependable journalism is expanding’. The broadcaster had earlier in July discussed intentions to combine BBC World News television and its local UK equivalent into a single channel to debut in April of the following year. The BBC World Service, one of the most recognisable international trademarks in the UK, is currently available in 41 languages worldwide. Each week, 364 million viewers watch.
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