The official site of the Prime Minister’s Office

Petition update, 02 June 2009

More details from petition creator

The Government has ignored recent calls by MPs from both sides of the House and members of the public for an investigation into the BBC World Service. There are several serious concerns about the way taxpayers’ money is being spent by the BBC.

The government has increased its Grant-in-Aid funding of the BBC World Service by about 20% over the past five years.

Despite this, the BBC axed much of its quality feature and cultural programming in favour of cheap news coverage across the World Service, significantly reduced its funding for Russian broadcasts and is in the process of offshoring South Asian language services “closer to their audiences”, to countries where intimidation of journalists is widespread.

Therefore, we call on the Prime Minister to launch a full and independent investigation into the BBC World Service.

Current signatories

Because there are so many signatories, only the most recent 500 are shown on this page.

• Elitza Bantcheva
• Martin Edwards
• Joe Gatt
• Jon Drury
• julia hall
• Lotte Bredt
• Antonina Zablocka
• John Grugeon
• Richard Kindersley
• Nicholas Spice
• Kay McBurney
• Santanu Majumdar
• Jennifer Carr
• Ljubica Erickson
• Mark Nelson
• Peter France
• John Buckley
• Natasha Micharina
• Ann Shukman
• Rebecca Trengove
• Michael Alcock
• Nadia Manuelli
• Dr. Tanya Argounova-Low
• Rajesh Joshi
• Jitendra Raut
• stuart campbell
• Dr. Thomas H Bak
• Elisabeth Kershaw
• Denis McCartney
• Wendy Muzlanova
• Alison Spritzler
• Arch Tait
• Dr Svetlana McMillin
• Jonathan Miller
• Graham Dane
• Gillian Gloyer
• sofia chandler
• Sarah Bell
• Andrea Belloli
• Michael Caines
• Tamara Dragadze B.A. D.Phil
• harriet smith
• WJM Murray-Browne
• Lindsay Duguid
• Andrew Gunn
• David Orchant
• Sophie Lewis
• Evelyn Adey
• Michael Axworthy
• Philip Adey
• Catheryn Kilgarriff
• Fatema Ahmed
• Anton Spice
• Iain Calder
• David Horspool
• Antony G. Wood
• Ronald Schwarz
• Dennis Deletant
• Peter Law
• Mike Jempson
• Nadia Volkova
• TARIQ ALI
• Chris Lam
• Katrin Frahm
• Isaac Alston
• R Tollemache
• Thomas Evans
• Andrew Elder
• Bernard Meares
• Brian Murphy
• Katja Richters
• Sigrid Rausing
• Louisa Hardman
• Tania Elliott
• Anna Gunin
• James McGivney
• Masha Woollard
• Nicola Nathan
• Anna Bailey
• Chris Marshall
• susan coles
• Geoff Bennetts
• Janet Williams
• Imogen Stidworthy
• Marie-Stella KREPPEL
• Barbara Wallard
• Desmond O'Brien
• Valentina Polukhina
• Gregory Pilszak
• Jacqueline Gabbitas
• helen frances constantine
• david constantine
• Lucy Weir
• Shamil Khairov
• Rohan Madison
• Kathy Wilkins
• Fiona Miller
• Anthony Briggs
• Neville long
• Catherine Crowther
• Tina Tse
• Daniel Weissbort
• John Bowles
• Euan Cameron
• safiahaleem
• Professor Norma Rinsler
• hugh fraser
• Will McMorran
• Sophie Green
• Lyndsay Miller
• Pamela Restonb
• John Wakefield
• Joanna Belin
• Teresa Cherfas
• Peter Firmin
• Mike Tucker
• Ed Fredenburgh
• Halina Nekanda-Trepka
• Vita Millers
• Wojciech A Sobczynski
• Mark Jeffs
• jane kelly
• Hilary Chadwick
• Golomstocr Igor
• Urbi Basu
• Sumit Basu
• Gedda Rozovskaya
• Judith Langley
• chiara coppola
• George Carey
• Liubov Jeffs
• Bill MacKeith
• Ute Michel
• Andrzej Borkowski
• K Akhtar
• Max Alexander
• mary coogan
• Walter Schneider
• Raya Herzig
• Elaine Bollinghaus
• Alex Harrington
• Tom Crean
• Vitor de Magalhaes
• Alex Mironov
• Diana Thorold
• Maria Jaczynska
• Frederick Thomas Poole
• Simon Roderick Field
• Adam Thirlwell
• Dick King
• S King
• Jeff
• James
• Lindy Ayubi
• Annabel Lucy Burrell
• Anthony Wolstenholme
• Joy Watkins
• Mr Phiilp Michaelson
• Malcolm Lyons
• K Green
• Tatsiana Rudzko
• Rosie Pinnington
• Elena Silina
• Anya Thompson
• Philip Ruff
• liane aukin
• Tom Birchenough
• Penny McCarthy
• Oliver Ready
• Ariadne Arendt
• Allison Havey
• Ekaterina Wetukowa
• julian Rothenstein
• Bonamy Devas
• Ekaterina Mikhailovskaia
• Matilda Moreton
• Tom Walker
• Robert Crombie
• james neville
• Richard Davies
• Olga Budashevskaya
• Adrian Vaux
• Andrew Spira
• Ian Smith
• Nicholas Wadley
• William Dunbar
• Alexander Schouvaloff
• Stephen Carter
• Pamela Davidson
• Edward Kissin
• Boris Sosna
• Ekaterina Koftounova
• David Moon
• David Elliott
• ann Kodicek
• Simon Dannreuther
• Roland Dannreuther
• John Dennen
• Betsy Garker
• Andrew Young
• ian meek
• jeremy brown
• Dr Mikhail Spivakov
• Dave Hutchinson
• Jenny Willis
• Thomas Ward
• Victoria Dannreuther
• Rebecca Penrose
• Judith Tigerschiold
• VICTORIA PRICE
• Michael Gold
• Nick Mayhew-Smith
• Judy Coffin
• Mathias Roth
• Jad Adams
• fiona murphy
• Anne Tickell
• Hattie Naylor
• Michael Wells
• Robert Chenciner
• Oliver Tickell
• Melanie Goldblatt
• Paul Mitchell
• Francesca Nicolas
• Kenneth Richardson
• dennis marks
• Anna Zaranko
• David Harley
• Amanda Love Darragh
• Helen Napper
• Rachel Coward
• Ann Bessell
• Martin Brown
• Vincent Guiry
• Sarah Gear
• Richard Davies, MBE
• Anthony Hugh Wyndham Chandler
• Tibor Fischer
• Elizabeth Moore
• Alexander Etkind
• Stewart Joseph
• Ben Gill
• Nick de Bunsen
• Julia Bard
• Alan Angell
• Ruth Brandon
• Gerard Wall
• Topsy de Guchteneire
• Arthur Hardman
• Peter Carson
• Charles Pottins
• Anna Teicher
• john hickinbottom
• Stuart Mudie
• margarita gluzberg
• Annette Kobak
• Andrew Hewson
• Hilarie Kerr
• Bernard Bourdillon
• Richard Kirkwood BA (Hons) (Oxon) FHEA
• Luke Edwards-Stuart
• Virginia Llewellyn Smith
• neil irons
• Catherine Rostas
• Keith Frederick Llewellin
• Livia Gainham
• John Reeve
• Penelope Taylor
• Mary Gilmour
• Brian Hall
• Jekaterina Young
• Elizabeth Chandler
• Carol Adlam
• Michael Stewart
• Jenifer Duncan
• Devin Giddings
• Katya Hornby
• David Blunkett
• Marko Bojcun
• Patrick Eley
• Josephine von Zitzewitz
• Lesley Daniel
• Luke Campbell
• Clive Langham
• Joanna Crowson
• Alexandra Wachter
• Robert Smith
• Henrietta Birchenough
• Matthew Platts
• Vanya Hackel
• Liz Sam
• Jane Young
• Robert Young
• Neil Freeman
• William Valk
• Paul Young
• Margorie Fisher
• Susannah Haan
• Anne Job
• Tanya Kolker
• Nicholas Rankin
• Burak Oztas
• Marie Bennigsen Broxup
• bernard sheedy
• abdur
• Helene Ryding
• patricia wiegele
• Alena Ledeneva
• Anthony Giddens
• Carol Ermakova
• Michel Borshchevsky
• Ekaterina Yaroshenko
• Anne Fleming
• Sher Marshall
• James Barker
• Tanya Kurkina
• Platon Borchtchevski
• Liz Sutherland
• Oleksiy Mishchenko
• Angela Weight
• James Ballantyne
• Kirsty Stuart
• Christopher Yates
• Graeme McCammon
• Viki Cooke
• Jenna Donaldson
• David Buchan
• Dr Mark Turin
• Joanna Coates
• Anthony Robinson
• John Taylor
• Richard Donkin
• Mieczyslawa Wazacz
• Nicholas Balon
• Moraig Macdonald
• Jan Morris
• Philip Booth
• Sima Vassilieva
• Iana Miriam Jacobson
• Sarah Edmunds
• Donna Edmunds
• Sandra Anderson
• Lutz Becker
• Caroline Dawnay
• Judith Hillmore
• Marina Warner
• Robyn Marsack
• Jock Dempster
• Jan Kuiper
• Eva Oddo
• Isabel Aitken
• Dina Gusejnova
• Fiona Vandersluys
• Usha Bagga
• Carole Angier
• Lou Errington
• Anne Berkeley
• John Haynes
• Patrick Miles
• Ruth Fainlight
• Peter Hoare
• Robina Pelham Burn
• William Ryan
• Daniel Hahn
• Patrick Trench
• J. B. Grout
• Anthony Holland
• Nicholas Martin-Smith
• Martin Rowson
• Asya Gefter
• Tom McCarthy
• William Paul Harriman
• John Adams
• sarah nundy
• Kate Griffin
• Jonathan Meades
• Carla Leonard
• Helen Kowalski
• Régis Gautier-Cochefert
• A.H.Walker
• Orlando Figes
• William Horsley
• Rachel Farmer
• Alice Doyle
• Jockj Gallagher
• Pen Kease
• carole satyamurti
• Charles Thomas
• judith vidal-hall
• Alastair Mansfield
• Heather Savage
• Pawel Pawlikowski
• Colin I Dove
• Hilary Speller
• Amanda Hopkinson
• vanessa pooley
• tadeusz Hudowski
• Julia Cooke
• james thackara
• Michael John Berry
• Wendy Jones
• Marianna
• George Avis
• Deepak Tripathi
• Richard Taylor
• Alan Richards
• Evelyn Haill
• Alan Sillitoe
• Nikki van der Gaag
• Lisa Maclean
• Elizabeth Smeeton
• Robin Minney
• gilliy Burn
• Catherine Baker
• Judith Roberts
• Emma Robinson
• Jonathon Kuiper
• Rico Isaacs
• Emily James
• Irina Redman
• Lisl Biggs-Davison
• Peggy Woodford
• Polly de Blank
• Gerard McBurney
• Angela Livingstone
• Lisa Brannstrom
• simon callow
• Nancy Napper Canter
• Pauline Fairclough
• Jane Tozer
• Marta Tomaszewski
• Stanislav Strekopytov
• Irina von Schlippe
• Penelope Ormerod
• Simon Tudhope
• Katy Aitken
• Ilona Medvedeva Rodgers
• Anne Marie Jackson
• George Szirtes
• Elinor Shaffer
• Leila Redpath
• Liam Trench
• Nina Taylor-Terlecka
• Barbara Humphries
• Domitilla Sagramoso
• Elena Shklovskaya
• Alan M. Suggate
• Anna Toumanova
• philip pilkington
• David Fanning
• Tobias Arnu
• Olga Tabachnikova
• Robin Bynoe
• Daria Bynoe
• Anastasia Zhabinskaya
• Peter Rooney
• Zdena Tomin
• Jenny Hayden
• Maria Cox
• Natasha Randall
• Martin Anderson
• Dr David Jeffery
• Gillian Gray
• Alan Jenkins
• Andrew Wood
• Olga Pattison
• Jan Fellerer
• Eugenia Donde
• martin sorrell
• Alan J Knight
• Ann E Nye
• sinead porter
• Sarah Bloch
• Jonathan Irwin
• Julia Brookes
• Cathy Smith
• GILL ROSS
• Caroline White
• Emily Ford
• Penny Wark
• Richard Dixon
• David Papineau
• Lynette Weekley
• Tom Harper
• Eric Miller
• Jo Carby
• Robert Hanks
• Mike Hills
• Leigh Gower
• Nikolai Matveyev
• Peter Burkimsher
• Cathy McAteer
• Stella Cherfas
• Andrew Bromfield
• Peter Iglikowski
• Miriam Dobson
• Natalya Chernyshova
• Craig Lord
• Antony Beevor
• John Herdman

Because there are so many signatories, only the most recent 500 are shown on this page.

Show all signatories