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The BBC World Service is at risk of “withering” and shedding its place as essentially the most trusted worldwide broadcaster as Russia and China spend billions on a flood of propaganda. The two states are collectively spending as much as £8billion a 12 months on world media whereas the World Service faces real-terms cuts.

A cross-party group of MPs have sounded the alarm, warning that the British broadcaster is “in danger of losing ground to its rivals” with its finances falling by greater than a fifth between 2021-22 and 2025-26. The Labour Government is instructed it “risks opening the door to propaganda from hostile states such as Russia filling the void it leaves behind”.

The highly effective public accounts committee (PAC) was “deeply troubled” to be taught the World Service has nonetheless not been instructed how a lot funding Yvette Cooper’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) will present for the approaching 12 months.

The World Service, which can also be funded by the licence charge, reaches a mean weekly viewers of 313 million in 43 languages, with the MPs describing the broadcaster as a “crucial soft power instrument”. However, it has seen a fall in digital audiences of 11% between 2021-22 and 2024-25.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who chairs the committee, stated the World Service is “being diminished by poor governance and short-sighted funding decisions”.

He added: “The Government must be clear-eyed about the realities of a diminishing audience for the BBC World Service. As it cuts back, it risks opening the door to propaganda from hostile states such as Russia filling the void it leaves behind, who are spending billions of pounds in this field. At a time of heightened geopolitical tensions and declining media freedom the UK cannot afford to lose such a crucial soft power instrument. Both Government and the BBC should seriously think about how the World Service’s influence can be bolstered around the world, rather than risk its reach withering by degrees year on year.”

In its proof to the committee, the overseas coverage assume tank the Henry Jackson Society burdened the necessity for a “strategic bulwark against state-sponsored disinformation and propaganda, particularly sponsored by China and Russia”.

A BBC spokesperson stated: “We welcome the PAC’s report which recognises the importance of the BBC World Service as the most trusted international news provider globally, and the need for secure, long-term funding. This is why we are calling for the government to take back full funding of the World Service as part of the BBC Charter Review.”