§ Mr. Masonasked the Lord Privy Seal (1) to what extent recent discussions by his Department, the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Russians centred around the problem of broadcast jamming between East and West; and whether any progress was made towards the goal of complete cessation of jamming;
(2) if he will list the British Broadcasting Corporation sound programmes that are still subject to jamming by the Russians and other Eastern European States.
§ Mr. HeathThe last occasion on which Her Majesty's Government discussed jamming with the Soviet Union was during the negotiations for the renewal of the Anglo-Soviet Cultural Agreement in January, 1963. There was no change in the Soviet position then.164W But on 8th June, 1963, the Soviet Union spontaneously ceased jamming the British Broadcasting Corporation's broadcasts in Russian, Polish and German. Soviet jamming of British Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts in Roumanian and Albanian ceased on 29th July.
From 9th to 17th July, 1963, Mr. M. A. Kharlamov, the Chairman of the Soviet State Committee for Broadcasting and Television, paid a visit to the United Kingdom at the invitation of the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation. During this visit there were discussions on broadcasting and television exchanges of various kinds between the two countries. As Soviet jamming of the British Broadcasting Corporation's Russian broadcasts had ceased before the visit took place, it was not a subject for discussion.
The present position is that the British Broadcasting Corporation's transmissions in Russian, Roumanian, Albanian and Polish are free from any interference. Transmissions in Hungarian, Czech, Slovak and Bulgarian continue to be jammed. Transmissions in German are jammed from East Germany and certain other East European countries, but not from the Soviet Union.