Cuts to BBC World Service put UK’s soft power at risk, panel says
Diplomats, teachers and UAE residents have criticised the BBC for cutting back its Arabic services, saying the move puts the UK’s soft power in the region at risk.
The BBC World Service’s Arabic language radio station was established in 1938, but went off air in January as the broadcaster looked to cut costs.
Speaking on Tuesday at a panel event hosted by the Emirates Society, Michael Wilson, director of British international school Cranleigh Abu Dhabi, said the BBC made a “big mistake”.
Amanda Buckley, cultural affairs officer at the UK’s embassy in the UAE, emphasised the importance of the World Service, which is broadcast in more than 40 languages.
“Soft power is becoming a far more contested and competitive field,” she said.
While British institutions and businesses in the UAE and across the region help to promote the UK, they could do more to connect with the culture, the panel said.
“There’s a deep and rich history between the two countries dating back to the Trucial States,” said David Sadler, provost at the University of Birmingham in Dubai.
“Understanding and being respectful of that is really important. It doesn’t give us supremacy – it’s a multidimensional challenge.”
Mr Wilson raised concerns that British schools contributed to a decline in the use of the Arabic language by promoting English.
This could affect perceptions of the UK in the UAE, he said.
“We will be seen as encouraging a loss of heritage and culture,” he said.
“I was born and brought up in East Africa, where this is exactly what happened.
“We need to be teaching the next generation about each other, about each other’s cultures, and not approach engagement from the basis of a former global power and an emerging international player.”
UAE resident Jim White attended the event and called for British citizens living in the country to learn Arabic.
“We need to be employing people that are Arabists, who are ready to spend a large chunk of their career in the diplomatic service speaking the Arabic language, and who are ready to understand the region’s history and values,” he told the panel.
“When activating that deep historic relationship, it has to be bilingual.”