:00:08. > :00:16.Samira Ahmed. This week, the BBC's international news services come
:00:16. > :00:19.under the spotlight. Hello and welcome to the programme. Later on
:00:19. > :00:24.this programme - BBC News has record audiences abroad for its
:00:24. > :00:28.international output, but from next year, that will be funded by British
:00:28. > :00:36.licence fee payers. We will look at what effect that will have. And
:00:36. > :00:44.also, it is that man again - is Russell Brand becoming the go to
:00:45. > :00:48.commentator on political discussion programmes? And a problem that is
:00:48. > :00:55.not going away - viewers tell us they are struggling to hear what
:00:56. > :01:03.guests and reporters are saying. First, the big political story of
:01:03. > :01:06.the week was Wednesday's government spending review. BBC News used a
:01:06. > :01:16.helicopter shoe shown live pictures of the car taking George Osborne
:01:16. > :01:31.
:01:31. > :01:35.from the Treasury to Parliament. South Africa have made it clear that
:01:35. > :01:39.the condition of Nelson Mandela is critical. This week, his eldest
:01:39. > :01:49.daughter criticised what she called the crass media frenzy around her
:01:49. > :01:57.
:01:57. > :02:02.to the comedian Russell Brand appearing on question Time. So, who
:02:02. > :02:07.should show up on The Andrew Marr Show, but the very same Russell
:02:07. > :02:13.Brand? Now he is based in the US, his appearances are coinciding with
:02:13. > :02:19.the start of his UK tour. I do not want the government looking at my
:02:19. > :02:29.e-mails, some of them are very smutty. I am not sure we all want
:02:29. > :02:29.
:02:29. > :02:33.to. I need to ask you one more question - Brazil dot stop dot I am
:02:33. > :02:43.here to promote my tour, so even I am a bit sneaky. Follow me on
:02:43. > :02:47.
:02:47. > :02:52.twitter! Thanks for having us on our news programme for the morning. You
:02:52. > :03:02.are much better looking in real life, Andrew. Jeremy Bolton was one
:03:02. > :03:02.
:03:02. > :03:50.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 48 seconds
:03:50. > :03:55.interviewed the head of the British Medical Association, Dr Mark Porter.
:03:55. > :03:59.This problem cannot be blamed on just one contract. I am very glad
:03:59. > :04:06.the Secretary of State now recognises that. Thank you very much
:04:06. > :04:16.indeed. The street was very noisy in the background, and one reviewer
:04:16. > :04:43.
:04:43. > :04:50.Leslie, with 82-year-old years, and he clearly has a sense of irony. The
:04:50. > :04:53.issue reared its head again this week, this time on the news channel.
:04:53. > :05:01.This is Baldwin street in Bristol, linking the train station with the
:05:01. > :05:09.city centre. Normally it is full of traffic, but not today. We have live
:05:09. > :05:18.music and street performers. One of the performers joins me now... What
:05:18. > :05:28.do you think of all of this case John Patterson did not love it, and
:05:28. > :05:42.
:05:42. > :05:46.do you think there are? Full marks to those who said, more than a
:05:46. > :05:52.quarter of a billion. That was the record audience this week for BBC
:05:52. > :05:57.World News. But none of them are currently funded by the bees beat --
:05:57. > :06:03.by the BBC licence fee payer. The BBC Arabic television channel is
:06:03. > :06:06.paid for directly by the British Government, like all of the
:06:06. > :06:12.corporation's services aimed at foreign audiences, who get a
:06:12. > :06:17.combined total of more than 40 million TV viewers. That is right
:06:17. > :06:22.the uranium authorities consistently jamming the satellites used and
:06:22. > :06:26.intimidating BBC staff and their families, at least during Iran's
:06:26. > :06:32.presidential election earlier this month. Undeterred by that, and by
:06:32. > :06:37.further threats to its journalists in countries such as Turkey, during
:06:37. > :06:43.the current protest there, the BBC would like to introduce services to
:06:43. > :06:46.Afghanistan, Burma and North Korea. But from next April, and who have to
:06:46. > :06:51.find all of these foreign services by itself, raising the question of
:06:51. > :06:59.how the UK licence fee payer will feel about being for the global
:06:59. > :07:03.transmissions. Thank you for coming in. Many viewers will be thinking,
:07:03. > :07:09.how can you justify licence fee payers funding services from now on,
:07:09. > :07:14.designed for foreign audiences, which we cannot see? I can
:07:14. > :07:16.absolutely see where that question is coming from, and I understand it.
:07:16. > :07:20.The British public is very supportive of the BBC World Service,
:07:20. > :07:25.we know that, because we are doing a great deal of research, and talking
:07:25. > :07:31.to a large number of people in the run-up to the World Service changing
:07:31. > :07:34.its funding to the licence fee. What we hear is a range of things. We
:07:34. > :07:39.hear people who respect the World Service for what it does for
:07:39. > :07:43.Britain. We hear people who tell us about how they feel the World
:07:43. > :07:48.Service enhances the reputation of this country, and more to the point,
:07:48. > :07:53.helps it punch above its weight. That is because of the whole
:07:53. > :07:57.concept. We hear that people trust what we do, and frankly, quite a few
:07:57. > :08:05.people did not know that they were not paying for the World Service.
:08:05. > :08:11.What difference will viewers in Britain notice? Well, hopefully they
:08:11. > :08:19.should see a great deal of difference. We have already started,
:08:19. > :08:29.now that we have moved in to New Broadcasting House, in one building,
:08:29. > :08:36.we have already started to appear on network news, on World News, and
:08:36. > :08:42.online. We are part and parcel of what World News produces. Our
:08:42. > :08:46.bilingual journalist have been prominent in Brazil, in Turkey, in
:08:46. > :08:50.Africa, in the Middle East, certainly. This is what the British
:08:51. > :08:55.licence fee payer will be able to see. And of course, all of the Dyas
:08:55. > :09:05.brewers will be able to access our online services. We have got 27
:09:05. > :09:08.
:09:08. > :09:12.online services, in 27 different languages. One big new area for the
:09:12. > :09:16.BBC has been these foreign language TV services, in countries like
:09:16. > :09:20.Iran, and there are new ones being introduced all the time. In the case
:09:20. > :09:29.of Iran, it has actually led to greater restrictions, harassment of
:09:29. > :09:34.BBC staff, making it harder for the BBC's news operations? Iran is one
:09:34. > :09:38.single example, and frankly, it was not just the BBC which was not
:09:38. > :09:42.allowed into Iran, it was the BBC and a host of other news
:09:42. > :09:46.organisations who could not go there. And those who could actually
:09:46. > :09:50.were not terribly free to report the news that they wanted to report.
:09:50. > :09:56.Whereas what we did from here, with our network of Lake correspondence
:09:56. > :10:06.in Iran, we were able to project a very clear and impartial picture of
:10:06. > :10:21.
:10:21. > :10:24.what is happening. -- with our lay correspondents. Some people are
:10:25. > :10:30.saying we get a lot from certain areas, but virtually nothing out of
:10:30. > :10:34.South America. What we are doing for the rest of the BBC, and for BBC
:10:34. > :10:41.News, I think is extraordinary, in terms of the reach that we can get
:10:41. > :10:44.hold of, and also in terms of how we can get the news. It is people from
:10:44. > :10:52.language services who have their way into these countries. What the World
:10:52. > :10:58.Service is about is plugging that gap of impartiality across the
:10:58. > :11:03.world. And I think we do that well. Thank you very much. I give for all