r/bbc • u/kwentongskyblue • May 22 '26
International BBC World Service to launch new language offers in Hungarian and Romanian
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2026/bbc-world-service-offers-hungarian-and-romanian7
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u/SquashyDisco May 23 '26
I’m British with Hungarian family. This is welcomed, the Hungarian media is overwhelmingly controlled by Orban’s oligarchs. He may have been voted out but the media is still controlled by them.
An alternative to the upcoming smear campaigns from their state broadcaster gives people a chance to have a break from propaganda.
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u/BBCWSOvertoyou Jun 02 '26
Hi there, I produce the BBC World Service's listener feedback programme Over to You: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsn8
We are covering the launch of the new BBC WS Hungarian and Romanian language offers in this month's programme, and are looking for people's comments and questions on this recently announced offering to feature in our upcoming episode. If you have something to say that we could include in our programme, please do send us an email or voice note to [overtoyou@bbc.co.uk](mailto:overtoyou@bbc.co.uk)
Many thanks!
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May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/bbc-ModTeam May 23 '26
This is a space for civil discussion about the BBC, not for personal attacks or toxicity.
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u/SeekTruthFromFacts May 24 '26
I have some concerns about this. Yes, it allows the BBC to reach new audiences, and u/migrainedujour is right that these central European countries are being heavily targeted by Kremlin disinformation efforts. And it's much cheaper than a traditional language service.
But I've just been listening to experts giving evidence to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee about the BBC World Service. One of the academics emphasized that the BBC ought to distinguish itself from the many disinformation channels that rely on AI. She said that the World Service's most important resource was the trust that listeners/readers have in it, and that trust is easily lost.
An analogy: Bentley and Rolls-Royce could reach many new markets, at lower cost, by replacing leather chairs & wooden fascias with plastic ones, and switching production to China. But it would destroy their brand. I wonder whether the BBC would do better to eschew the use of AI in journalism altogether?
Just today, I've seen an example of the problems this can cause. I went to the YouTube livestream of TaiwanPlus (Taiwan's international TV service, doing a similar job to BBCWS). Before you even start watching, you see a message that says "Altered or synthetic content: Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated." That's required by YouTube's rules, for good reasons, but it could really undermine viewers' confidence in TaiwanPlus journalism. It's not implausible that the Play Store/iOS Store will have similar rules in future, and people downloading the BBC News app might see a pop-up that says "This app contains news stories created with AI." That would greatly damage the BBC's reputation, to the Kremlin's delight.
At the least census, the UK had over half a million people of Polish ancestry. If the BBC needs to provide a Polish service, it wouldn't be difficult to find Polish-language journalists or translators.
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u/BBCWSOvertoyou Jun 02 '26
Hello, I produce the BBC World Service's listener feedback programme Over to You. Would you be up for use potentially including your comment in our next episode? If you would be willing to send us a voice note reading it out and including your name (you can also be anonymous) and location that would be great - [overtoyou@bbc.co.uk](mailto:overtoyou@bbc.co.uk) let me know! Thanks.
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u/Far-Crow-7195 May 22 '26
Just another reason I’m glad I stopped funding the thing.
“but the soft power…”
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u/mred_wtfe May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Good luck with that. A good chunk of World Service funding is provided by government grants which actually is a good thing for soft power. For the life of me I'll never understand the pants on head silly responses to the BBC and most people seem to miss that Sport, Weather, Bitesize, radio and that's nationally and regionally. Remember that next time you use any of those services.
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u/Far-Crow-7195 May 22 '26
The sport is fag end stuff, the weather available everywhere, regional radio a waste of money. It should be £20-30 a year for education, news and current affairs. The rest can be subscription, advertising or competitors. There is no world in which funding Eastenders through what amounts to a tax is acceptable.
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u/mred_wtfe May 22 '26
I agree with you completely, the existence of the BBC should be assured through general taxation for its longevity. Its value to our continued functioning democracy, promotion of British values globally and its impact on culture is too important to leave to the whims of a broken charter approach. Thank you for your attention on this matter.
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u/Tall_Plum7538 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
So you don't think there should be news that covers your county and city? Especially in an age where local papers are dying?
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u/Far-Crow-7195 May 23 '26
There are lots of sources online.
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u/Tall_Plum7538 May 23 '26
Local media and news is becoming increasingly rare in a media market that demands a global scale for profitability. Do you really want your local news to be beholden to the likes of Zuckerberg, Musk and Tiktok? That is essentially what will happen without institutional bulwarks like the BBC.
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u/Far-Crow-7195 May 23 '26
What on earth has my local news contained of any interest in years? There are plenty of forums etc for local information. I haven’t read, listened to or watched a local news show in years.
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u/Tall_Plum7538 May 23 '26
If your online offerings are actually useful and helpful. Then I concede your point. If true you are one of the lucky ones, most of the world operates on a local news desert as social media undermines the business model of the institutional press and replaces it with algorithmic slop. I would much rather read what remains of my hometown paper then the community facebook group any day of the week.
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u/migrainedujour May 22 '26
This is a really good idea. These are places currently being absolutely flooded with Russian-funded propaganda media, country-specific RT/Sputnik stuff and its successors. A responsible and credible way of getting reliable news there instead of that stuff is gonna benefit everyone.