The end of the BBC Caribbean Service reflects British disinterest in the region

The View From Europe

On January 25 the BBC World Service announced that as part of a new funding arrangement with the British Government it will be cutting the broadcaster’s budget by 16 per cent or by around US$73 (£46M) per annum. In doing so it will be significantly reducing the numbers it employs and cutting the range of the programming and services it offers to many regions of the world, including the Caribbean.

The decision almost certainly spells the end for the BBC Caribbean Service in English which as matters stand will cease broadcasting to the region at the end of March, along with a service in Spanish for Cuba. The official reason for this and other cuts is that the relationship between the BBC World Service and the UK Government has changed.

Under a new financial settlement as a part of the UK Government’s overall spending review, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which funds the BBC World Service, will see a 33 per cent reduction in its budget. However, a significant proportion of these cuts will be achieved by a reduction in funding for the BBC World Service. This means that in the period up to 2014, the BBC’s World Service will receive a much reduced grant and then from 2014 onwards it will be paid for out of the BBC’s income from UK television licence fees.

According to officials, under the new devolved arrangement, the UK’s Foreign Secretary will retain his veto over any future decision to reduce the geographical range of services provided by Bush House,  which put another way seems also to mean that he or she can direct which services should continue or will be prioritised.

In the case of the BBC Caribbean service and its approximate US$0.8M (£0.5m) budget it would appear that at a foreign policy level the region was not considered significant enough for political intervention; and then at a senior management level the feeling was to suggest that the Caribbean Service would not be missed as the region had a complex web of print and broadcast media.

Put another way, the BBC’s management in an effort to justify cutting the service, seems to have convinced itself that the void it is creating will be filled by local media; in doing so failing to understand the complexities of the region or to recognise that there is virtually no consistent re-broadcast pan-Caribbean radio programming, let alone the funding or the commercial desire to provide such coverage.

The reality of what happens next is likely to be somewhat different to what the BBC’s management believe. With the dismantling of its Caribbean Service its specialist team of independent Caribbean staff, who have become well known and trusted across the region, will depart and what little that was left that represented and conveyed a regional broadcast perspective will disappear for ever.

As a consequence the sole vehicle offering the region the chance to hear on a daily basis about events from a broader perspective and sometimes hold politicians to account, will be no more, and leading figures in public life will find it virtually impossible to present their views to a region-wide radio audience. Moreover, the BBC will become a weaker news institution as the in-house expertise and contacts that the Caribbean service has provided to the BBC newsroom and other regional services at times of intense media interest – for example the earthquake in Haiti or recent troubles in Jamaica – evaporate.
More significantly still, the decision points to a further dismantling of the UK’s desire to have a substantive or influential presence or interest in the region at a time when support for the concept of the Caribbean as region is dying and the influence of others that the UK is unsure of is growing.

What the decision points to is disinterest. Despite the warm words, the reality is that the UK’s role in the world is in decline and its straitened economic circumstances are forcing it to reconsider its relationships. That this is happening when others, including China, Brazil, Venezuela  and in the longer term India, are seeing value in developing a strategic relationship with the region suggest that the UK’s once intimate involvement is drawing to a close.

Paradoxically concerns about security, consular issues, a role for the Caribbean diaspora in the UK, organised crime and the governance of overseas territories continue to exercise Caribbean related thinking in the UK, but the absence of money is now driving policy.

Logically this ought to offer an opportunity for a regional news provider to step in to fill the void. However, unless such institutions can find an external donor, benefactor or commercial sponsor who will significantly enhance capacity and training, while demonstrating a willingness to defend the independence and professionalism of its journalists from political attack, such a scenario is highly unlikely.

In an unspoken way the Caribbean service indirectly supported the sense of region, albeit from afar.  That it is going ow just as the Caribbean’s commitment to regionalism is fading suggests either a lack of political awareness or interest in London. The decision is short sighted and the savings are minimal. It will have a long-term cost to the Caribbean’s perception of the UK and of itself.

The BBC Caribbean Service was a practical daily manifestation of region and the fact that Britain cared. Its value far exceeded the sums spent bilaterally through Britain’s aid budget for the region.

In many respects the various incarnations of the BBC Caribbean Service reflected the nature of the changing UK relationship with the region.

It first started broadcasting to the Caribbean at the start of the Second World War. In its early days it was primarily aimed at enabling letters and messages to be broadcast home from West Indian troops serving overseas.

Later it went through other changes showcasing some of the regions greatest writers and poets, before reappearing in the late 1980s as a news and current affairs department providing a mix of programming carried by radio stations throughout the region.

The Caribbean Service’s caring and professional staff will disperse; its archive hopefully will go to the University of the West Indies so that its unique contemporary record of events will not be lost along with it region wide daily audience.

The demise of the BBC Caribbean Service is yet another marker in Britain’s less than joined-up reassessment of how it relates to the region.

David Jessop is the Director of the Caribbean Council and can be contacted at david.jessop@caribbean-council.org

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