B.B.C. link reprieved

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 6

B.B.C. link reprieved

NZPA London The 8.8.C.’s transcription 'service, which provides New Zealanders with programmes such as “The Archers” and “My Word,” won a partial reprieve yesterday when the Government announced it. .was halving the $6.6 million proposed cuts in its subsidy to the 8.8.C.’s External Service. ■ This means that the $2.2 million subsidy for the transcription service will be reduced to about $l.l million, a 8.8. C. spokeswoman said. "There will be some reduction in the transcription service, but at this stage we don’t know what they will ’be.” Thousands of Ne.w Zea-

landers had protested against the proposed cuts. ! The British Government .wanted the cuts’made to help pay for a $2.2 million scheme .•to buy'new transmitters sb that more people could hear ■, 8.8. C. broadcasts. f . ; A motion objecting to the cuts was carried in ' the House of Lords earlier this year,' and they had been condemned in a House of Commons motion signed by more than 80 Conservative backbenchers. The Government’s decision to. halve the. proposed cuts was announced in. the Commons yesterday by the Foreign Office Minister (Mr Richard Luce). He said three of' the

8.8.C.’s 40 language services — to Malta, Spain and Italy — would be.axed, instead of the seven originally to be cut. The Government’s aim remained to help the 8.8. C. external services reach a wider audience, he .said. “The priority is to ensure they continue to be heard loud and clear throughout the world,” he said. In Wellington yesterday the manager of Radio New Zealand’s National Programme, Mr Peter Downs, said: “This is very good news. Obviously the British Government has realised the tremendous importance these programmes have in showing British culture to the world.”