HC Deb 03 July 1967 vol 749 c171W
65. Sir T. Beamish

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what information he has, from his monitoring, of how

Country Arabic Persian Turkish Yiddish Kurdish
U.S.S.R.
Moscow … 42.00 21.00 24.30 Nil Nil
Radio Peace and Progress … Nil Nil Nil 3.30 Nil
Baku … 7.00 12.15 7.00 Nil Nil
Dushanbe … Nil 7.00 Nil Nil Nil
Erivan … 8.10 Nil Nil Nil 10.30
Tashkent … Nil 7.00 Nil Nil Nil
China … 14.00 7.00 7.00 Nil Nil
Bulgaria … 17.25 Nil 20.55 Nil Nil
Czechoslovakia … 12.50 Nil Nil Nil Nil
East Germany … 35.00 Nil Nil Nil Nil
Hungary … Nil Nil 9.00 Nil Nil
Rumania … 10.30 6.25 6.25 Nil Nil

As regards the tenor of these broadcasts I would refer the hon. and gallant Member to Parts I, II and III of the daily Summary of World Broadcasts prepared by the British Broadcasting Corporation monitoring service, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.

66. Sir T. Beamish

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for how many hours per week British programmes, mainly in Arabic, are broadcast to Middle East countries; and what steps he proposes to increase the output and improve their effectiveness.

Mr. Malley

At present the British Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts to the Middle East for 84 hours a week in Arabic, 7¾ hours in Turkish, 7½ hours in Hebrew and 5¼ hours in Persian, as well as 138¼ hours in the World Service in English.

The main improvement planned is the construction of the new relay station at Masirah Island announced in my hon. Friend's reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South (Mr. Ashley) on 2nd February, 1967.—[Vol. 740, c. 169.]