The quality of news coverage has been demonstrated in trouble spots as far afield as Chechnya, East Timor and Kosovo, and in reporting many events of deep significance for World Service audiences such as the Indian elections, the military takeover in Pakistan and the path to reform in Iran. Complementary in-depth documentary programmes such as Seeds of Conflict , about the conflict in Kosovo, provided the additional insight that characterises the World Service as a distinctive broadcaster. Major developments have been taking place in many language services. The Arabic Service has launched a new sequence of early morning news and current affairs programming, and the Russians have introduced a new 24-hour news bulletin service for rebroadcasters. We are also building momentum in Spanish through new rebroadcasting partnerships in Latin America.
Big challenges remain in some of our key markets.
In West Africa and East Africa, a heartland of major audiences, high quality programming must be tailored appropriately and distributed in the most effective way. Continued FM expansion is essential if we are to maintain our audience levels. In India, too, we must strive to be available on FM as the market is deregulated and as competition from television intensifies. In South Africa, we must seek to improve our performance, whether through rebroadcasting partnerships or the internet. We must strengthen our programming for key areas undergoing transformation including the Balkans, Indonesia and Iran.