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Diary

Gwyneth Williams

Wednesday, 9th April 2008

Gwyneth Williams on delivering the World Service

It is ironic that the English WS, thought by some to be old-fashioned and rooted in the days of the empire, is a leader in the knowledge society; a uniquely global public service, demonstrating rationality in action day after day. Never have we needed more (as Daniel Barenboim, another Reith lecturer says) to ‘listen to the narrative of the other’. But the World Service is now more than a famous and loved radio network. It exists on the web, as downloaded programmes on MP3 players, as a contributor to other networks through partners around the world. Figures show that audiences go up for stations in America which take Newshour, our flagship daily current affairs programme. Our goal is not just information but understanding. Tim Berners-Lee, who founded the net, nominated us for the task: ‘As the World Wide Web gives us access to an exploding variety of information, so grows the need for an overall global view filtered with wisdom. Long may the World Service fulfil this role.’

Bush House is a different country. There is no English froideur and the basis for respect is knowledge, expertise and commitment to the truth. And we matter: as Wole Soyinka, the Nobel-prizewinning poet and, yes, another Reith lecturer, said when he handed me an unpublished poem to broadcast: ‘Listening to the World Service has become a habit.’ Or as Jeff Sachs (yet another Reithie) said when he called me from Ghana in amazement a year or so ago, ‘The check-out lady has just said, “Are you Jeff Sachs who gave the Reith lectures?”’ As I walk into my office I pass a sign which reads: ‘1300–1400, bellydancing’. I love it.

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