Sir, The letter (Nov 7) about the BBC Russian service contains inaccuracies and distorts our proposals to strengthen our output for Russia.

We are all agreed on the aim of increasing and improving the impact of the service in a complex Russian media landscape where short-wave listening is rapidly declining. We have 730,000 weekly radio listeners in Russia — down from 1.3 million in 2005. Therefore we are moving resources from the non-news or obsolete parts of the radio schedule — dropping seven hours a week of news bulletins for FM partners we no longer have and light feature programmes with little analysis; and 11.5 hours a week of repeats.

Instead, we are enhancing and extending our daily flagship news and current affairs radio programmes at peak listening times and weekends. Far from dropping analytical and cultural programming, as claimed, the BBC Russian service is strengthening the provision of journalism about politics and culture, and giving it space within high-profile programmes seven days a week.

There are 32 million online users in Russia, more than a million of whom used bbcrussian.com last month. Online remains, in the view of many commentators, the last unrestricted medium in the country. Therefore we are bringing new depth to the site with an online rolling news service fully updated 24/7, and more of the popular video news reports and interactivity features to continue the rapid growth of audiences. I very much doubt that the Russian authorities will regard stronger journalism, delivered at times and in ways when it has most audience impact, as a “perverse concession”.

The BBC Russian service remains the second-biggest language service within BBC World Service, in terms of budget and hours broadcast. The BBC will continue its strong commitment to the BBC Russian service and to its role as a trusted, influential and editorially independent news provider.

Nigel Chapman
Director, BBC World Service

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