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David S. Jackson responds to Gary D. Rawnsley's blog post about the BBC's credibility. 

The future of the BBC World Service as a credible and independent news organisation hangs in the balance (BBC plans TV and radio services for Russia and North Korea, 5 September). It is surprising that the BBC would wish to single out particular countries, rather than languages, that it wishes to target, thereby conceding ground to its critics around the world who view the World Service as an instrument of British propaganda.

The BBC has unveiled a proposal to launch a radio service in North Korea, but the U.K. government will never fund it without a dramatic shift in foreign policy, experts say. "The BBC is trying to justify its public funding by showing that it can do something political that the private sector wouldn't do," said Aiden Foster-Carter, a senior research fellow specializing in both Koreas at Leeds University. 

The BBC is set to unveil proposals for a significant expansion of the BBC World Service, including potentially a satellite TV service for Russian speakers and a daily radio news programme for North Korea.

The BBC has a fantastic radio documentary and magazine piece on the UK's leading digital diplomat Tom Fletcher (h/t @ukinaustralia). This critique of how US ambassadors attempt to influence online debates points to French Ambassador @GerardAraud as someone who 'does Twitter right'. Russia's game of trolls: how 'digi-kids' and anime is helping President Putin's fight for online supremacy.

Iran's Tasnim news agency has reported an announcement by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance about lifting the ban on BBC operations inside of Iran. The Ministry is responsible for Iran's domestic and foreign press regulations.

The debate over what to call the Islamist extremist group that controls parts of Iraq and Syria has been raging for well over a year now. [...] Cameron's logic is simple: Calling the group "Islamic State" defers upon it a religious legitimacy and sense of statehood that should be denied.

In the past, the biggest problem was: How do we get information to these people who either have none, or few ways to access it? Now, as the BBC report notes, the main problem isn’t scarcity of information, it’s a scarcity of reliable information. 

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