I must admit that I sometimes feel guilty that I don't listen to it a lot more,but to be honest,it has to compete with a plethora of alternative sources of information.
That doesn't decry from its excellent service and the organisation is celebrating its 75th anniversary this month.
Often the questions are asked how relevent it is in this multi media internet age.
John Tusa,its former head writes in the Telegraph
How relevant is it now that information is, allegedly, "unlimited"? Paradoxically, as the new media reveal their limitations – unreliability, partiality, the flaunting of personal whim or political bias – so the need for edited, processed, considered, reflected news and information reasserts itself.
If you want to know why the service is so important read the article and read the piece by Brian Keenan who whilst held in captivity for 5 years in Beirut had it as his only life line
Little did I know when I first became a convert just how meaningful and inspiring its broadcasts were to become during my captive life in a filthy hole in the ground in Lebanon in the late 1980s.
It was here that I learnt about the catastrophe of Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the détente between Israel and the PLO. There were stories about communities in northern China, the suppression of the Falun Gong, the disappearance of tribes in the Amazon. Then there was the occasional snippet about the campaign for Western hostages in Lebanon. That was real oxygen from the airwaves to a drowning man.
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