BANGKOK - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which operates radio services in 43 languages, will terminate its Thai-language service at the end of the year, the "Nation" daily reported Monday. The paper, quoting a source in London from where the programmes are produced and aired, reported that the 65-year-old service would be shelved due to cost-cutting measures.
The BBC is said to be focusing more attention on the World Service in Arabic and had asked the Foreign Office of the Commonwealth (FOC) for 45 million pounds to establish an Arabic language television channel for the Middle East and North Africa.
The Nation said none of the Thai service staff was aware of the termination. An official announcement is expected on Oct 25...
Besides the Thai service, BBC is also expected to end its central European-language services... the BBC World Service, funded by the FOC, had also stopped Malaysian, German, Hebrew, Italian and Japanese services. Other Asian language services still in operation are Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Tamil, Nepalese and Burmese... [the]BBC also wanted to shelve the Tamil and Nepalese services but was put on hold as the political instability in the two countries remained on the international news agenda. |