At 11pm on 31 January 2023 the Arabic radio service of the BBC will present its last news bulletin before signing off permanently, bringing an end to eight decades of radio broadcasts in Arabic.
Earlier this week, in a statement that came as a surprise to both staff and audience, the BBC said that the 84-year-old Arabic service would be removed from the airwaves as part of a package intended to save the corporation £500 million. It also said the move reflects changes in audience behaviour as listeners move away from radio and move more to online services.
For the Arab audience the news came as a bit of a shock, especially for older generations who would regularly tune to the BBC to access news that was ignored by national radio and television services or to check on the accuracy of the news they did broadcast.
On social media there was a flurry of tweets and posts as people…
