Seeking a viable replacement for BBC Caribbean Service

Not so long ago, it was announced that the BBC Caribbean Service will cease to exist as of March 31 this year. The management of the BBC World Service said that the closure is part of a slew of cost-cutting measures currently engaging the organisation. Services in other regions of the world are also expected to be slashed.

The BBC has stated that it will, instead, be focusing on online and new media content and distribution. The cuts will result in 650 closures worldwide and the loss of more than 500 jobs over the next year. Audiences are also expected to fall, going from the current weekly figures of 180 million to 150 million. In a release to the press, the BBC World Service said the restructuring is a result of a cut in its grant-in-aid funding from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and is intended to meet the 16 per cent savings’ target set by the British government’s spending review in October last year.

The BBC Caribbean Service first started broadcasting in the Caribbean in 1939. The service’s main feature was the “Calling the West Indies” programme, which featured West Indian troops on active service during World War Two reading letters on air to their families back home. And from 1943 to 1958, the programme became “Caribbean Voices”, which highlighted West Indian writers. During that period, new writers, including VS Naipaul, George Lamming, Andrew Salkey and Samuel Selvon, worked and produced their first works. Some years later, news and current affairs became the main feature of the service.

Most of us in the Caribbean will surely miss the top class reporting and analysis of issues to which we had grown accustomed; and, no doubt, it would take some time and hard work to fill the gap that the BBC Caribbean Service will leave. BBC Global News Director Peter Horrocks had this to say about the closure of the news service:

“This is a painful day for BBC World Service and the 180 million people around the world who rely on the BBC’s Global News’ services every week. We are making cuts in services that we would rather not be making. But the scale of the cut in BBC World Service’s grant-in-aid funding is such that we couldn’t cope with this by efficiencies alone.”

It is important that we recognise the efforts made by West Indian men and women and their British counterparts, who strove for more than 40 years of unbroken service to present a balanced, comprehensive, and intelligent picture of life in the Caribbean. The Caribbean Service has also been an invaluable source of insightful analyses and commentaries on the effects of world economics and politics on the Caribbean.

With the closure being inevitable, we in the Caribbean, especially news organisations, should now challenge ourselves to establish a credible, homegrown Caribbean news service with which our people can identify. Perhaps we may want to review whether CANA and its successor, the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), could be revitalised as a regionally-run news service.

This is certainly an opportunity for bold, collective action by Caribbean media owners and managers to be creative enough to fill the gap as a result of the closure of the BBC Service, and at the same time ensure that the careers of men and women who have contributed significantly to regional information and understanding continues.

In a recent statement, the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) called on the CMC and the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) – whose mandates and functions mirror those of the Caribbean Service – to move immediately to create a viable alternative. The ACM stated that “the CMC especially, which has inherited the Caribbean News Agency (CANA), a trusted and independent organisation that gave so many of the BBC Caribbean staff their start, must now seize the opportunity to ensure that the region does not skip a beat in making the transition from a London-based Caribbean news organisation to a Caribbean-based news agency.”

While the impact will be felt by local new organisations, it is expected that regional governments and institutions will step up to the challenge and pool much-needed resources in ensuring that the Caribbean benefits from a distinctive service that provides trusted news, information and analyses of the highest quality.