Actually, the BBC World Service—that is, broadcasts aimed at audiences outside Britain—are paid for by the Foreign Office, though that is about to change.
Fars issued a highly imaginative article last week that noted plans to slim the budget by laying off 800 people.
“But BBC Persian was not included in the managers’ decision due to the special goals of the [UK] intelligence service and UK Foreign Office,” Fars said. “This was because BBC Persian has some kind of special independent budget that has been provided by America and he UK government.”
Fars said, “This year, in addition to this special support, confirmed sources have reported that £1 million [$1.6 million] of help has been provided by the Baha’i Center in the Occupied Territory [Israel] to the BBC Persian network, while 750,000 euros [$1 million] of help has come from wealthy and famous Baha’i families and £300,000 [$500,000] from the Iranian Jews Association of London.
“[Former Empress] Farah Pahlavi, during her visit to BBC Persian, paid $1 million to this network and also Ashraf Pahlavi [twin sister of the late Shah] allocated the dividends of her huge financial savings to the BBC,” Fars continued.
Fars failed to explain why the United States would wish to contribute even a penny to the BBC, which is the primary competitor to the US-funded Voice of America (VOA).
But more importantly, the BBC World Service, including BBC Persian and dozens of other languages, is funded directly by the British Foreign Office. The BBC’s domestic service is funded by a license fee that UK subjects must pay annually to own radios and televisions.
However, this is about to change. As part of its severe budget cutbacks, the government of Prime Minister David Cameron decided earlier this year that the World Service budget would be absorbed by the BBC starting in 2014.
What impact that will have on budgeting for BBC Persian remains to be seen. Last year, the budget for the BBC’s domestic services came to £3,596 million while the Foreign Office kicked in £253 million for the World Service. When the BBC absorbs the World Service, it will in effect be hit with a 7 percent budget cut.
The BBC has said it will be looking for a private partner to run some of its foreign language services starting in 2014. That will give the Pahlavis a chance to bid, if they are so minded—although it is unlikely they could meet BBC standards.
In the United States, the VOA used to be run and funded by the State Department while Radio Free Europe (RFE), the parent of Radio Farda, was started and overseen by the CIA. When the RFE link to the CIA was exposed, that became very embarrassing. And the VOA, meanwhile, was irritated by the constant effort of some ambassadors to dictate coverage in their area.
So, in the 1970s, the US Congress created the Broadcasting Board of Governors to run all US government broadcasting as an independent agency. Its funds come from the US Congress and the governors are appointed by the president with most of them coming from the US broadcast industry.