Editing BBC World Service (section)

===BBC Persian Service===
In the context of the [[Iranian Revolution]], the BBC World Service's [[BBC Persian|Persian-language service]] has been criticised for its role in promoting the [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Shah]]'s regime and undermining local norms in favour of British-selected values, with the [[List of diplomats of the United Kingdom to Iran|British Ambassador in Iran]], [[Peter Ramsbotham]], stating in reaction to a Service-sponsored poetry contest (in celebration of the [[2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire|2500th anniversary]] of the founding of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Archaemenid empire]]) that the organisation "seems to be damaging its image by acquiring a reputation for employing and supporting 'old brigade' expatriates."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ramsbotham |first1=Peter |title=Telegram from P. Ramsbotham to M. Dodd |date=17 July 1971 |publisher=BBC Written Archives Centre |location=Tehran }}</ref>

Furthermore, it appears{{according to whom|date=March 2023}} that the [[Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office|Foreign & Commonwealth Office]] made a concerted effort to produce favourable coverage of Persia to BBC World Service audiences in order to maintain cordiality with the Shah's regime. For example, in December 1973, a memo from Ramsbotham details a request from the [[Prime Minister of Iran|Iranian Prime Minister]] for the text of a broadcast about Iran by [[Peter Avery]], lecturer in Persian Studies and Fellow at [[King's College, Cambridge]], which he deemed 'excellent' and wanted to show the Shah. This later became the programme ''Iran: Oil and the Shah's Arab Neighbours'' which was aired globally on 1 December 1973, much to the chagrin of the Iranian people, who began airing their frustrations against the British government out on the BBC Persian Service; By 1976, Ramsbotham's successor, [[Sir Anthony Parsons]], concluded that the Persian Service has lost its propaganda value and supported discontinuing the service: "[It] is well known that the vernacular service is financed by the FCO and is therefore firmly considered by the Iranians as an official organ of the government."<ref>{{cite book |title="Central Current Affairs Talks External Broadcasting" |date=1 December 1973 |publisher=Foreign and Commonwealth Office |edition=O26/1374 - 35 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ramsbotham |first1=Peter |title=Ramsbotham to Managing Director of External Broadcasting |date=27 October 1973 |publisher=BBC Written Archives Centre |location=Tehran }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Parsons |first1=Sir Anthony |title=Telegram from A Parsons to N J Barrington on "BBC Persian Service" |date=4 July 1976 |publisher=Foreign and Commonwealth Office |location=Tehran |edition=9 FCO 8/2762 }}</ref>

In September 2022, the World Service announced the closure of its Persian and Arabic radio services as part of a cost-cutting plan, but the online and TV services would remain.<ref name=ft-20221207/><ref name=guardian-20220929>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/sep/29/hundreds-of-jobs-to-go-as-bbc-announces-world-service-cutbacks |title=Hundreds of jobs to go as BBC announces World Service cutbacks |last=Waterson |first=Jim |newspaper=The Guardian |date=29 September 2022 |access-date=12 January 2023}}</ref>