A
Transcription Services
8. Mr Ridley said that FCO did not see the transcription services as an instrument of foreign policy and did not wish to continue financing it. Since its content was principally cultural, some other source might pay for it. Mr Muggeridge suggested that cultural broadcasting was an important part in projecting the national image and every programme placed gets on to the national broadcasting time of the country concerned. He proposes to review the possibility of combining English Language by Radio and TV, Topical Tapes and the Transcription Services into one virtually self-financing exercise. He believed that his review would be completed within 3 or 4 months. Mr Ridley welcomed this suggestion and said he looked forward to seeing a proposition on the results of the review.
Extra Vernacular Services
9. Mr Bell said the BBC would be ready to start the new Turkish broadcast by mid-March. They would require FCO authority to fund this from capital underspending. Mr Ridley said he understood that the Turkish costs could be covered by the £200,000 of proposed FCO savings in 1981/82.
Mr Muggeridge said that at previous meetings the BBC had been told that funds would be found', and they had understood that this meant additional funds. Mr Gregson conceded that the BBC could not resist the prescription of services by FCO.
Mr Ridley said that our view was that savings could be made by reducing vernacular broadcasts. Mr Gregson said that the £40,000 for the new Pushtu services might now need to be increased because of jamming.
10. Mr Ridley summed up by saying the meeting was agreed that the table of figures as it stood, including the savings line and with an additional 1984/85 column should form the basis of an approach to the Treasury. There should be no mention of "slippage". It was noted that the Treasury would not be direct- ly concerned with breakdown between capital and current expend- iture but only with the total sum involved.
Radio Liberty
11. Mr Ridley said that the United States Embassy had been told that the UK would not be able to help them with their proposal for Radio Liberty to share CED facilities in Cyprus and Masirah. Lord Nicholas said that he had explained to the Embassy that their proposal would have caused major problems for both FCO and BBC. However, this was probably not the last we would hear of this guestion which might be raised by the new American Administration. Mr Muggeridge said that the BBC had heard that the new Administration might seek to combine VOA and Radios' Liberty and Free Europe; while the BBC could live with the VOA the other two services were pure propaganda.
Russian Services
12.
Mr Muggeridge said that in order to counter Russian jamming of British broadcasts, the BBC now proposed to experi- ment with one five-hour transmission period per day in place of the three shorter separate transmissions at present being broadcast. This would involve an extra 30 minutes per day.
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