The world reveres the BBC – and so should we | Letters

Readers respond to the cuts being made to the broadcasting corporation’s budget, including for the World ServiceMartin Bell makes an excellent case for the great importance of maintaining the BBC World Service (Having risked my life in war zones for the BBC, I know this: cuts to the World Service will be disastrous, 14 May). Shortly after reading his article, I began to read a Norwegian novel, Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated by Anne Born. It includes the telling comment: “The good thing about the BBC’s World Service … is that I can get updated on the position of countries like Jamaica, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka in a sport such as cricket; a game I have never seen played and never will see … But what I have noticed is that ‘The Motherland’, England, is constantly being beaten. That’s always something.’Clare AddisonMarston, Oxford• The cuts proposed for the BBC World Service come on top of plans to deny BBC radio programmes to anyone living outside the UK by limiting access to BBC Sounds. Yet I can listen to French, Polish and other overseas radio here in the UK with no restrictions. Why shouldn’t we share our news, music and culture with the rest of the world?Eddie TulasiewiczLondon Continue reading...

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