The BBC
World Service will begin broadcasting in 11 additional languages in a drive to
reach millions more people, including in places like North Korea where
impartial news is hard to get.
The World
Service started out in 1932 as a radio channel for English-speakers in the
British empire but has morphed over time into a respected provider of news to
global audiences. It already broadcasts in 29 languages, reaching an estimated
246 million people around the world every week.
The
additional African languages will be Afaan Oromo and Amharic, spoken in
Ethiopia and other countries, Tigrinya, the main language of Eritrea, and
Nigerian languages Igbo, Yoruba and Pidgin, also spoken in other West African
countries.
The World
Service will also add Indian languages Gujarati, Marathi and Telugu, as well as
Punjabi which is widely spoken in Pakistan and parts of India, and Korean,
spoken in both Normth and South Korea.
The
expansion will mean more journalists on the ground in locations around the
world.
The BBC
will also extend its news bulletins in Russian, with regionalised versions for
surrounding countries, and add regional programing in Arabic and short-wave and
medium-wave radio programs aimed at audiences in the Korean peninsula.
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