§ Mr. LazarowiczTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in what languages other than English radio programmes are broadcast in the United Kingdom; and for how many hours each month in each case. [43860]
§ Dr. HowellsThe following is a list of languages (other than English) which are broadcast on radio in the United Kingdom. Detailed information on how many hours each month, for each language are available only for BBC radio broadcasts.
393WLanguages which are broadcast on independent radio in the UK:
Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, Croatian, French, Gaelic, German, Greek. Gujarati, Hindi, Hindko, Italian. Kashmir, Malaysian, Mirpuri, Pahari, Pathwari, Patois, Punjabi, Pashto, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish, Urdu and Welsh.Stichting Transworld Radio Europe and WRN Euromax are broadcast in multi-lingual European.The BBC also broadcast a number of languages on radio in the UK. These are:
Radio Nan Gaidheal broadcasts in Gaelic for around 155 hours per month;Radio Cymru broadcasts in Welsh for around 535 hours per month;The Asian Network broadcasts in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Mirpuri for around 272 hours per month;Local radio stations offer some broadcasts in languages other than English including over 160 hours per month in Asian languages, four hours of Italian and 12 hours of Cantonese.A special version of the World Service is currently available via Digital Satellite in Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Pashto and Persian and broadcasts 24 hours a day. Some listeners may also be able to receive foreign language programmes from the main World Service but this service is not of course directed at licence payers in the UK.