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Soviet Union (now estimated at some 15 million regular listeners) that the action of the Soviet authorities to discontinue jamming was somehow being rewarded.
6. Mr Dodd expressed some surprise at the suggestion for cuts in Arabic. He confirmed that the BBC themselves had some doubts about the effectiveness of the present direct broadcasts of the Spanish and Portuguese Services to Latin America. He said they were currently considering ways in which the present output might be supplemented by special projects to feed programmes direct to the region for rebroadcast on local radio stations. But he expressed some scepticism at the reported anecdotal evidence from Posts that the World Service was more widely listened to than the vernacular language broadcasts. Mr Hinchcliffe said that at least two Ambassadors he had recently talked to had been dubious about the value of these vernacular services.
7.
The BBC side expressed disappointment that cuts were again being suggested for the French and German Services which they were trying to reschedule into a trilingual BBC Channel for Europe. Mr Barrington mentioned other services which the Prescription Committee had considered. It had been agreed that the Somali Service (output 7 hours a week, annual direct cost £380,000) remained vulnerable, but that its future should be reassessed after Mrs Chalker's visit to Mogadishu in April 1987. In the meantime he emphasised the importance of not giving undue prominence to the SNM Somali opposition movement and seeking balanced views on developments from the Somali Government. He mentioned the Prescription Committee's interest in exploring the possible savings to be made by changing the "Calling the Falklands" programme (1 hour a week, annual cost £50,000) from a direct broadcast into a taped programme for local rebroadcast. The Governor's views were being sought on this. He emphasised the political sensitivity of it becoming public knowledge that such a change was even being considered. The BBC undertook to look into the financial implications, but their preliminary thoughts were that the scope for savings would probably be limited. Mr Barrington mentioned that a revived Sinhala Service had been considered, but it had been decided to keep this under review in the light of developments in Sri Lanka and the availability of resources. An increase in Vietnamese had also been considered in the light of the recent Foreign Affairs Committee report, but the Asian Departments in the FCO considered that a new Korean Service was a higher priority given the constraints on resources.
Capital Programme
8.
On the Far East, the BBC confirmed that the new Hong Kong relay station should be operating in October 1987. On Southern Africa, the BBC confirmed that the extension to the Lesotho relay station was on target to begin operating in December 1987. Asked about publicity for the improved signal into South Africa, the BBC said they had plans for a press campaign once the new
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