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The BBC is standing by its decision to cut back its World Service broadcasts to Egypt despite the political crisis that has engulfed the country.
Over the past week the popularity of the BBC's Arabic website surged as president Mubarak's government looked to clamp down on media reporting of the uprising, shutting down the al-Jazeera news channel,arresting journalists and pulling the plug on mobile phone and internet services.
Short-wave broadcasts of the BBC Arabic service, which has around 400,000 listeners in Egypt, will be shut down as part of plans to save £46m from the World Service's budget. The changes follow a 16% cut in its funding by the government and are likely to lead to the loss of 30 million listeners worldwide.
There will also be "significant reductions" in the BBC's Arabic TV services, according to the plans outlined by the BBC's global news director, Peter Horrocks, last week.
The National Union of Journalists described the World Service's transmission policy as "short sighted".
"The Egyptian government's attempt to close down the internet and mobile phone network demonstrates how short sighted the current World Service transmission policy is," said an NUJ official at the World Service.
"In a volatile world the World Service needs to maintain its own network of transmitters beyond the reach of dictators so it can continue to reach its audience."
The BBC said the majority of its World Service listeners in Egypt tuned in on FM or via local broadcasting partners.
Short-wave broadcasts accounted for around 400,000 listeners out of the World Service's Egyptian radio audience of 1.6 million, the corporation added. BBC Arabic's total audience in Egypt, across TV, radio and online, was 3.4 million.
"With satellite TV becoming virtually ubiquitous in the Arab-speaking world, and the success of its own TV channel, the BBC has decided to stop its short wave broadcasts to some countries in the Middle East," the corporation said in a statement.
"However, BBC Arabic will continue to serve its radio audiences on medium wave, through its network of FM relays and via existing and new rebroadcasting partnerships.
"It will also continue to serve its most sensitive audiences in Sudan and Arabic peninsula with short wave and medium wave broadcasts.
"We have seen a significant spike in the number of people visiting bbcarabic.com. It's now at record levels – 1.3 million unique users in the week commencing 24 January, generating a total of 8.5m page impressions.
"This is the highest weekly reach ever measured, more than twice as high as the average week in December, despite the fact that the majority of our audience in Egypt, our biggest market, cannot reach the website because of the internet restrictions introduced by the Egyptian government."
But one visitor to the Save World Service page on Facebook said: "With the events in Egypt this week where the internet was shut down, how can the BBC honestly believe that satellite and internet feeds will replace shortwave?"
Another said: "As shown in Egypt the internet and cell phones can easily be cut off. In many places where the internet does exist service is not reliable ... You cannot compare a relatively inexpensive radio set with a costlier computer or hand-held electronic device."
With short-wave broadcasts of the BBC Arabic service also due to cease in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank, Libya, Iraq and the Maghreb region of north Africa, it is expected to lead to the loss of around 5.7 million listeners across the region.
Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/
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