The BBC World Service is to get £4.1m in extra funding to support its Ukrainian and Russian services, the government has announced.
Ministers said the funding would “cover urgent and unexpected costs” that have arisen as a result of the invasion of Ukraine and would help the corporation to tackle disinformation “in the face of systemic propaganda”.
Its extra costs include relocating many Russian-based staff out of the country to safe locations in a bid to comply with laws restricting the reporting of the war.
The BBC already receives direct government funding to the tune of £100m a year from the Foreign Office for many of its World Service operations, often in countries that are seen as key to Britain’s strategic aims.
The government said it believes the BBC’s output was playing a “valuable role in challenging the Kremlin’s disinformation” but it is facing “additional costs from operating within a military conflict and due to a crackdown on independent reporting in Russia”.
The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, who recently announced another real terms cut to the BBC’s licence fee income that is likely to result in further job cuts, said it was the corporation that had asked for the emergency funding.
She said the government would provide the cash to bring western news to audiences in Russia and Ukraine.
She said: “In scenes reminiscent of 80 years ago, the BBC will ensure that audiences in the region can continue to access independent news reporting in the face of systemic propaganda from a dictator waging war on European soil. It’s vital we lift the veil on and expose the barbaric actions of [Vladimir] Putin’s forces.”
Russian officials have repeatedly attempted to portray the BBC’s coverage of Ukraine as being a tool of the British government. The BBC’s Russian language website has been banned in the country, although can be accessed using VPNs.
Yet despite threatening retaliation after media regulator Ofcom decided to permanently ban Kremlin-backed news station RT from British airwaves, Moscow has so far not stopped the BBC’s English-language journalists reporting from the country.
Welcoming the government’s announcement of £4.1m, the BBC director-general, Tim Davie, said the money would “enable us to continue expanding the ways we are reaching audiences in Russia and Ukraine”.
He added: “The BBC has seen a big demand for clear, fact-based, impartial journalism to counter disinformation and our teams are working around the clock to bring people the very best independent journalism.”
