Monday, Dec. 19, 2011
THEN
Dec. 19, 1932, at 9:30 a.m. from a studio in London, England, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins transmitting overseas to Australia, New Zealand, and later to other parts of the British Empire. BBC chair at the time, J.H. Whitley, opens the broadcast by saying the overseas transmission is “a connecting and coordinating link between the scattered parts of the British Empire.” While not the first overseas broadcast, the BBC World Service goes on to become one of the most widely listened to radio broadcasts in the world.
NOW
Today, more than 100 million people around the world listen to BBC World Service programs each week, which include news, entertainment, education, and information in English as well as more than 30 other languages. Last month, cable operators in Pakistan canceled BBC World Service television programming due to the airing of a controversial documentary film titled “Secret Pakistan.” The documentary draws a link between the Pakistan military, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. Pakistani military officials dismissed the two-part documentary as “baseless, concocted, and malicious.” The BBC said the Pakistani cable operator’s decision to cancel programming “threatens our editorial independence and prevents audiences from accessing our impartial international news service.”
