Nigel Chapman Quotations

There has been a huge change in the media scene, with many new services opening up which subscribe to similar values as the BBC. BBC audiences are declining in many markets as they discover these new national and local services.

But Europe has changed, fundamentally, since the early '90s. Now the countries to which these languages are broadcast are members of the EU (European Union), or are likely to join soon.

BBC Persian.com is a major source of news for Iranians, and has the biggest impact of any online site or newspaper in Persian. We are very concerned at this action and regret that it deprives a great number of ordinary Iranians of a trusted source of impartial and editorially independent news and information.

The changes add up to the biggest transformation of BBC World Service that has been undertaken - and one of the most far-reaching - since the BBC began international broadcasting more than 70 years ago.

We are very concerned at this action and regret that it deprives a great number of ordinary Iranians of a trusted source of impartial and editorially independent news and information.